The Extraterritorial Reach of the Defend Trade Secrets Act

In an article for the Union of International Associations’ Juriste International magazine, litigation partners Bryan Washburn and Randy Kahnke discussed the lengths of trade secrets as protectable intellectual property in the United States.

The coauthors discussed the history of trade secrets, including the 2016 enactment of the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), when it was added to the Economic Espionage Act of 1996. The enactment of the DTSA gave trade secret owners a standardized claim for trade secret misappropriation that may be brought in federal court.

The authors noted that as a result of the expansive reach of the DTSA, even in cases where the trade secret theft occurs mostly outside the United States, trade secret owners should consider whether they are still able to bring a claim in a U.S. court under the DTSA.