![]() Forty-eight states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. This changed in 1979, when the Uniform Law Commission published the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (“UTSA”) to standardize trade secret law across states. Historically, protection of trade secrets was a matter of state law, with each state developing its own definitions and rules. There is no uniform definition of “trade secret,” because trade secrecy law developed at both the state and federal level. This article provides an overview of trade secret law and summarizes the necessary steps that companies should take to protect their trade secrets. Understanding this important area of law is critical as the information age evolves and as companies face increasingly sophisticated attacks from those looking to access their IP. Through the first half of 2018, 581 trade secret cases had been filed, putting the number of trade secret cases filed in 2018 on pace to slightly exceed 2017. trade secret cases filed, but this rose to 1,134 cases filed in 2017. According to a 2018 Lex Machina Report, this increased even more dramatically with the passage of the DTSA. According to a 2016 Report by Willamette Management Associates, the number of federal trade secret cases increased by 14 percent for each year from 2001 to 2012. Instead, it's all about the perhaps forgotten part of IP: trade secrets…With massive jury rewards and the DTSA encouraging federal litigation, trade secrets litigation is seeing a surge in the tech industry.” This reporting is consistent with reported industry data. As described in recent press, such as Trade Secrets Litigation: The No-Longer-Forgotten Part of the Tech IP Arsenal (Corporate Counsel, Warren, Z., July 28, 2017), “hese days, many of the big IP litigation battles involving companies like Facebook…, Uber … and Epic … have nothing to do with patents, trademarks or copyrights at all. ![]() In the last few years, businesses, governments, and law enforcement agencies have increased their focus on trade secrets as an effective way of protecting a company’s “secret sauce.” This trend accelerated with the passage of the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (“DTSA”), and trade secret litigation has moved toward the forefront of intellectual property law. By contrast, trade secrecy provides another avenue to protecting a company’s IP that allows the inventions to be kept secret and potentially protected forever. And while patents last for twenty years, they do not last forever. It also requires disclosure of the invention itself in the patent application. While patent law offers strong protections for proprietary inventions, obtaining a patent requires establishing that the invention is novel, non-obvious, and patent-eligible. This proprietary information is vital to these companies’ survival, and among their most valuable corporate assets. Public Services, Infrastructure, TransportationĬoca-Cola’s secret formula.
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