Understanding the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA): The Federalization of Trade Secrecy

Law Review is pleased to inaugurate our "symposium discussion" series in which leading experts are invited to engage in an evening symposium on a new or emerging area of law.The subject of our first evening symposium was the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), a federal statute signed into law on May 11, 2016 2 that creates a federal civil cause of action for trade-secret misappropriation.The DTSA marks a significant federalization of trade secrecy law, giving companies the opportunity to protect against and remedy misappropriation of propriety information in federal court.Prior to the DTSA's enactment, companies were essentially forced to bring trade secrecy claims in state court unless there was diversity jurisdiction; such diversity jurisdiction is rare in trade secret cases because, as one of our panelists, Mr. James Pooley notes, trade secret cases tend to have local actors.Because trade secrecy protection was a matter of state law, there has been a lack of uniformity in substantive trade secrecy standards, statutes of limitations, and 1. Please cite as Symposium, Understanding the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA): The Federalization of Trade Secrecy, 50 LOY.L.A. L. REV.331 (2017).2. Defend Trade Secrets Act, Pub.L. 114-153, § 3(a)(1), May 11, 2016, 130 Stat.382 (codified as 18 U.S.C. § 1832, et.seq.).remedies.The DTSA now provides companies the option of filing suit in federal court through a uniform federal statute.But as with most new law, there are many unsettled issues, disagreements about the likely impact of the law, and much to be developed as the law is tested in court.To shed some light on the DTSA and the increasing importance of trade secrecy protection, the symposium panelists were:  DAVE H. GREEN -Mr.Green is currently Assistant General Counsel in Microsoft Corporation's Intellectual Property Policy Group, counseling in the areas of copyright, trade secret and intermediary liability.He was previously Assistant General Counsel for Corbis Corp. and, prior to that