The FBI on Economic Espionage
Federal Economic Espionage Act Overview
Corporate Law Report: Economic Espionage Act, Top FCPA Enforcement Actions, Trademark Audits, and More
Last week, the Seventh Circuit heard arguments in Motorola Solutions, Inc. v. Hytera Communications Corp. concerning when, if at all, civil claims under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”) may extend to extraterritorial...more
Federal authorities have recently described the threat of economic espionage from foreign entities as one of the greatest threats to the economic vitality of the United States, and this has led to an increase in...more
Earlier this month, a Northern District of Illinois jury returned a verdict in favor of Motorola for over $700 million after a trial in which Motorola alleged that Hytera hired three engineers away from Motorola’s Malaysian...more
On March 5, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois entered a final judgment on a jury verdict of approximately $764.6 million in a high profile trade secret misappropriation case — Motorola...more
Businesses at every level – from Fortune 500 companies to solo-inventor enterprises – rely on trade secret protections to safeguard their intellectual property trade secrets. American companies and innovators now have...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
In June, agriculture giant Monsanto was the first to use the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) by filing a federal suit in the Eastern District of Missouri naming one former employee and a number of John and Jane Does as...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
This past week, the Ninth Circuit released two important decisions that clarify the scope of liability under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), 18 U.S.C. § 1030. The Act was originally designed to target...more
The overwhelming bipartisan passage by both the House and Senate of the new Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (“DTSA”) which was signed into law (18 U.S.C. §§ 1831-1839) by the president on May 11, 2016, marks not only an...more
What is Coca-Cola’s secret recipe? How does Thomas’ English Muffins get all those “Nooks & Crannies”® in its muffins? And how does Krispy Kreme make its signature lighter-than-air doughnuts? These are the type of trade...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, President Obama signed into law the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), which the Senate and House passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. The DTSA will fill a large hole in the law of trade secrets. In the past,...more
President Obama is poised to sign the Defend Trade Secrets Act 2016 (“DTSA” or the “Act”), legislation that would fundamentally overhaul the decades-long tradition of state control of trade secrets lawsuits. DTSA, which...more
With its passage by the House of Representatives, the Defend Trade Secrets Act ("DTSA" or "Act") has now cleared both houses of Congress and will be sent to President Obama for his approval. Where trade secrets were once...more
Over the past decade, as companies moved into a digital world, so too moved their most valuable assets and proprietary information. As a result, the United States witnessed a significant uptick in data theft and...more
There’s no doubt that protection of trade secrets is a major concern for most businesses operating in today’s global economy. As we have previously discussed, a few years ago CREATe.org and PwC US released a report that...more
Consider the following, relatively uncommon scenario: an employee stole your trade secrets and went to work for a competitor. You know the employee did it, you just cannot prove it. Even with the best forensic analysis it is...more
In 2009, Sergey Aleynikov was a computer programmer employed by Goldman Sachs to write high-frequency trading code. He accepted an offer to join a new Chicago-based company, Teza Technologies. Before he left Goldman Sachs,...more
Sergey Aleynikov’s six-year trade secret odyssey through all possible configurations of litigation, civil and criminal, federal and state, may at long last have come to an end after the New York Supreme Court recently...more