The FBI on Economic Espionage
Federal Economic Espionage Act Overview
Corporate Law Report: Economic Espionage Act, Top FCPA Enforcement Actions, Trademark Audits, and More
Economic espionage sounds more like the stuff of a spy thriller than a day-to-day concern for business. Not so, as it turns out. To learn more we sat down with the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division Unit Chief Matthew Charles...more
Employers often go to great lengths to protect company documents and communications concerning and discussing confidential trade secret information. But what happens when employees leave, bring a whistleblower claim, and the...more
The Economic Espionage Act (EEA), codified in 18 U.S.C. § 1831-1839, makes the theft of or trafficking in trade secrets for foreign governments, instrumentalities, or agents a criminal act. Prior to passing the EEA, the Trade...more
Companies often consider trade secrets to be their crown jewels. But in the digital age, where copying and sending files is as easy as one click, protecting trade secrets has become even more challenging. Losing control over...more
Loyal readers are familiar with the DOJ’s “China Initiative,” launched in November 2018 to prosecute the theft of U.S. trade secrets by or for Chinese interests. Attorney General Barr reaffirmed the DOJ’s commitment “to...more
Caramel Crisp LLC, the owner of Garrett Popcorn Shops (“Garrett”), the renowned Chicago-based purveyor of deliciously flavored popcorn, recently filed suit in federal court in Chicago against its former director of research...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the first federal jury criminal conviction for economic espionage and theft of trade secrets under the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (EEA), even though the owner of the...more
Earlier this year, Congress passed the Defend Trade Secrets Act ("DTSA"), a comprehensive amendment of existing legislation that previously addressed economic espionage and now provides for a private federal civil cause of...more
It has been nearly five months since President Obama signed the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”) on May 11, 2016, extending federal protection to trade secrets. In the past few months, employers around the country...more
Concerns about trade secret theft have been increasing in both the United States and Europe in recent years. Traditionally, American law disfavored trade secret protection vis à vis patenting on the basis that publication of...more
As many loyal TSW readers know, we’ve been watching the ongoing saga involving ex-Korn Ferry recruiter David Nosal wind its way through the courts since the early days of this blog. And last month, the highly anticipated...more
In a pair of highly anticipated decisions, the Ninth Circuit significantly reshaped criminal and civil liability under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). The court’s recent decisions in United States v. Nosal...more
Is password sharing a crime? It can be under the right circumstances, according to last week’s decision in United States v. Nosal. In Nosal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the conviction of a former...more
Companies should take three steps now to ensure use of the Defend Trade Secrets Act. In May, President Barack Obama signed into law the Defend Trade Secrets Act that creates a federal civil cause of action for the...more
With the enactment of the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA), owners of trade secrets now have the ability to bring a cause of action for misappropriation of trade secrets in federal court. Previously, employers...more
The new Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), signed into law by President Obama on May 11, 2016, creates a new private civil cause of action in federal court for trade secret misappropriation. Prior to the DTSA, trade secret...more
On May 11, 2016, President Barack Obama signed the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) into law. This is the first federal private right of action for trade secret misappropriation. The key aspects to this new law are...more
The Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2015 (DTSA), which establishes a new federal private right of action for trade secret misappropriation, is now the law. Trade secrets, the fourth leg of the intellectual property chair, have...more
On May 11, 2016, President Barack Obama signed the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA), providing a federal civil cause of action for the misappropriation of trade secrets under the Economic Espionage Act. Both the Senate...more
On May 11, 2016, President Obama signed into law the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016, which among other things creates a federal civil right of action for trade secret misappropriation and provides immunity, under certain...more
On May 11, 2016, President Obama signed the Defend Trade Secrets Act which had been overwhelmingly passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on April 27, 2016, after having previously been passed by the Senate. The Act...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: A new federal civil cause of action is now available to trade secrets owners seeking to pursue claims of trade secret misappropriation under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”). To take full advantage of...more
Yesterday, as anticipated, President Barack Obama signed the Defend Trade Secrets Act into law, wrapping up a lengthy bipartisan effort to bring trade secrets under federal system law. Some observed that the fact that...more
Earlier yesterday, President Obama signed into law the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), which the Senate and House passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. While the impetus for the new law has been trade secret theft by...more
Yesterday, President Obama signed into law the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA). The White House had previously expressed support for this law by stating that “Effective protection of trade secrets promotes innovation...more