Lawyers Ready to Reap Work From Federal Trade Secrets Act -- By Ben Hancock, The Recorder
SAN FRANCISCO — After languishing for more than three years, a bill that would allow parties to sue in federal court over trade secrets theft appears on track to be passed by Congress. But while most lawyers in the field agree it will be a boon to their practices, there's a sharp divide over whether the legislation spells relief or a new threat to Silicon Valley's fast-moving economy.
The Defend Trade Secrets Act sailed through the Senate this past week with no opposition. Though the bill had been bogged down in both chambers because of a lack of movement on patent reform, prospects for the measure look good in the House as well. ... [But] critics of the bill say it could be ripe for abuse.
To the bill's supporters, that's nothing but hyperbole. James Pooley, who was most recently the deputy director general at the World Intellectual Property Organization and testified in favor of the DTSA at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last December, dismisses this threat in a forthcoming article in the George Mason Law Review.
"[T]here never has been such a thing as a 'trade secret troll,' and there is no reason to believe that the pending legislation will cause this imagined beast to materialize," Pooley writes. He and other supporters argue that there's a fundamental difference between patents and trade secrets: while a patent can be unwittingly infringed, in a trade secrets case, the plaintiff has to show some act of misappropriation.
To read more from The Recorder, click here.
For updates on the DTSA as it progresses, click here.