Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Defend Trade Secrets Act

by a resounding vote margin of 410 to 2. Having been unaminously passed by the U.S. Senate on April 4, 2016, the bill no moves to President Obama’s desk where, given his support of the bill, he is expected to sign the bill into law.

The bill creates a federal civil cause of action for trade secret misappropriation and allows the owner of a misappropriated trade secret to obtain an ex parte seizure to prevent disclosure of the trade secret. The Act provides an additional level of trade secret protection to the existing framework of state laws which, while largely uniform, still have many inconsistencies. Once signed by the President, the law will go into immediate effect and will apply to any acts of trade secret misappropriation occuring after that date.

Having provided trade secrets counseling to many of our clients and successfully litigation trade secret misappropriation claims in state court, we applaud the bills Congressional sponsor, Representatives Doug Collins (R-Ga) and Gerrold Nadler (D. N.Y.) and Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Ut.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) as well as the members of Congress who bilaterally supported this very important step forward in safeguarding our nation’s vaulable intellectual property rights and business owners.