WASHINGTON – The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism will examine legislation introduced last month by U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) at a hearing Tuesday on economic espionage and trade secret theft. The bipartisan Defend Trade Secrets Act would empower companies to protect their trade secrets in federal court by creating a federal private right-of-action, similar to protections that already exist for other forms of commercial intellectual property. Theft of corporate trade secrets leads to the loss of an estimated $160 billion to $480 billion each year in the United States and puts U.S. jobs and innovation at risk.

“The intellectual property that drives the U.S. economy has never been more valuable, or more vulnerable,” Senator Coons said. “American companies are losing jobs because of the theft of trade secrets every day. This bipartisan bill will empower American companies to protect their jobs by legally confronting those who steal their trade secrets. It will finally give trade secrets the same legal protections that other forms of critical intellectual property already enjoy. Congress should step in now to stop the hemorrhaging of jobs and revenue being lost to the theft of trade secrets by passing the Defend Trade Secrets Act.”

The hearing, entitled “Economic Espionage and Trade Secret Theft: Are Our Laws Adequate for Today’s Threats?” will include testimony from FBI Counterintelligence Division Assistant Director Randall Coleman, Pamela Passman of the Center for Responsible Enterprise And Trade, Peter Hoffman of The Boeing Company, Drew Greenblatt of Marlin Steel Wire Products, and Douglas Norman of Eli Lilly and Company.

Current federal criminal law has been insufficient to protect companies against trade secret theft. Although the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 made trade secret theft a crime, the Department of Justice brought only 25 trade secret theft cases last year. State-level civil trade secret laws alone have not been sufficient to stop interstate theft. Federal courts are better suited to working across state and national boundaries to facilitate discovery, serve defendants or witnesses, or prevent a party from leaving the country. Laws also vary state-to-state, making it difficult for U.S. companies to craft consistent policies.

The Defend Trade Secrets Act would:

  • Harmonize U.S. law by building on the Economic Espionage Act to create a uniform standard for trade secret misappropriation. Companies will be able to craft one set of nondisclosure policies secure in the knowledge that federal law will protect their trade secrets. 
  • Provide for injunctions and damages, to preserve evidence, prevent disclosure, and account for the economic harm to American companies whose trade secrets are stolen.
  • Be consistent with the approach taken to protecting other forms of intellectual property, such as patents, trademarks and copyrights — all of which are already covered by federal civil law.

Read more about the bill here: http://www.coons.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senators-coons-hatch-introduce-bill-to-combat-theft-of-trade-secrets-and-protect-jobs

The full text of the bill can be downloaded as a PDF here: http://coons.senate.gov/download/defend-trade-secrets-act