In this time of federal legislative gridlock, there is at least one issue Congress and the president agree upon enthusiastically: Last month the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 was overwhelmingly approved by the Senate (87-0) and the House of Representatives (410-2), and signed into law by the president on May 11. The law creates a new federal private right of action prohibiting the misappropriation of trade secrets, so that every major branch of intellectual property law — save the right of privacy — now has its own statute affording civil plaintiffs access to federal courts.
Congress was apparently persuaded to pass the Defend Trade Secrets Act because it believed that theft of trade secrets has caused trillions of dollars of losses to the American economy. Nevertheless, the statute makes no meaningful substantive change in existing state trade secret law, and it is far from certain that federalizing trade secret misappropriation was necessary.
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