UPDATE: Will the U.S. Enact a Federal Trade Secret Law?April 7, 2016

The Filewrapper® series relating to all things trade secrets has previously updated the status of proposed federal trade secret legislation (available here). As previously reported there appears to be sufficient legislative support to enact legislation to establish a single, national standard for trade secret misappropriation with transparent procedural rules.

The Senate has taken the next step for approval of the legislation. On April 4th, the Senate unanimously passed a floor vote for the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA).  For additional Senate insight into the bipartisan support for this legislation the January 27th op-ed written by the sponsors of the legislation, Senators Hatch (R-Utah) and Coons (D-Delaware), in The Hill (available here) sets forth their rationale for having a federal cause of action for trade secret misappropriation. In part, the Senators use the exemplary case of trade secret theft experienced by DuPont – the chemical company who invented Kevlar body armor – to demonstrate the harm caused to companies by trade secret theft.

President Obama’s administration has clearly indicated its support for the DTSA, including issuing a statement on Monday (available here). The next step will be for the U.S. House of Representatives to move forward with their trade secrets bill. In the House the bill is sponsored by Reps. Collins (R-Georgia) and Nadler (D- New York) with a staggering 128 co-sponsors.

In case you missed the last Filewrapper® post earlier this week, the fifth posting on trade secrets answered the question “Do I have a trade secret, confidential information or patentable subject matter?”(available here).

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