6 Key Takeaways | Criminal Trade Secret Theft
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Compliance Perspectives: The FBI on Why and How to Work with the Office of the Private Sector
On August 7, 2024, the 6th Circuit upheld a Chinese spy’s twenty-year prison sentence for attempting to steal aviation trade secrets from General Electric (GE). Yanjun Xu, a deputy director in China’s Ministry of State...more
What must you show to prove that someone misappropriated trade secrets? The Arkansas Uniform Trade Secrets Act provides that misappropriation of trade secrets can be shown in one or more of three ways: acquisition or physical...more
Most states have a law that protects trade secrets. California, for example, has CUTSA (California Uniform Trade Secret Act). Arizona has the Arizona Uniform Trade Secrets Act ("AUTSA") found in chapter 4 of title 44 of the...more
The Second Session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress voted and passed on April 26, 2023 the newly revised “Anti-Espionage Law of the People’s Republic of China” (the New Anti-Espionage Law). The...more
Partners Adria Perez and Clay Wheeler presented "Criminal Enforcement Trends in a Connected World" at our Kilpatrick Intellectual Property Seminar (KTIPS). ...more
The Department of Justice on November 19, 2021, updated its online information sheet about its ongoing China Initiative, which “reflects the [DOJ’s] strategic priority of countering Chinese national security threats” by...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of a motion to dismiss an indictment, charging four Chinese companies with violations of the criminal provisions of the Economic Espionage Act...more
Florida has given employers a new weapon in their trade secret protection arsenal: the Combatting Corporate Espionage in Florida Act. With the Biden Administration’s goal of curtailing non-competes and the Supreme Court’s...more
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed the Combating Corporate Espionage in Florida Act into law, and it will take effect on October 1, 2021. The new law was created to protect intellectual property in Florida from...more
In this divided political age, it is rare that a legislative body can agree on anything. It is rarer still to pass something unanimously. But the Florida Legislature found something ALL 145 members could agree on: the...more
The trial of Xiaorang You (aka “Shannon You”)—the principal research engineer accused of stealing trade secrets from several companies, including Coca-Cola—began on April 6, 2021 in the Eastern District of Tennessee at...more
Loyal readers are familiar with the DOJ’s “China Initiative,” launched in November 2018 to prosecute the theft of U.S. trade secrets by or for Chinese interests. Attorney General Barr reaffirmed the DOJ’s commitment “to...more
In 2017, the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property issued a report to Congress estimating that the theft of trade secrets could cost the United States economy as much as $600 billion annually. In the years...more
The FBI wants you, but it’s not why you think. Spencer Evans, the Section Chief in the Office of the Private Sector (OPS), explains that the OPS is here to help and wants you to get involved. He begins the podcast by...more
In the modern age of relatively cheap and ever-evolving technology, corporate espionage is a real threat that could be perpetrated by any employee or other insider at any time. The term “corporate espionage” covers many...more
Recently, popular Southern California juice and aguas frescas chain Green Crush filed suit against up-and-coming rival juice bar Paradise Splash and several individuals. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the...more
Sergey Aleynikov was tried and convicted on criminal charges by both a Federal and a New York state jury; both times, his conviction was reversed. But his luck on appeal may have run out. The Appellate Division, First...more
You may have missed it this past weekend, but reports indicate the United States is considering sanctioning Chinese companies and individuals who have benefited from their government’s alleged cyber hacking of U.S. trade...more
As we approach the dog days of summer, baseball season is again in full bloom. We previously discussed old-fashioned sign stealing in the context of teams trying to gain a competitive advantage during an actual game. But it...more
The Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (EEA) provides for the criminal prosecution of the theft or misappropriation of trade secrets. The statute was enacted to protect and promote national and economic security by filling in...more
A prosecutor opened the economic espionage trial of Walter Liew on Wednesday by waving at jurors a key that he alleged opened Liew’s safe deposit box containing industrial secrets stolen from DuPont. Assistant U.S....more
Trade secret theft knows no borders in an age of cybertheft and global corporate espionage....more
Every day the headlines report another Fortune 500 company suffering a hacking incident. For companies, the hack itself creates substantial risks of economic devastation caused by the theft of valuable trade secrets. Add to...more
The White House warned yesterday that hackers and “hacktivist” groups have the intent and capability to target U.S. companies and steal confidential data. A new executive strategy explains that the threat of corporate...more
On December 28, 2012, President Obama signed into law the Theft of Trade Secrets Clarification Act of 2012, (the TTSCA), S. 3642, which broadens the scope of the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (18 U.S.C. Sections 1831-39)....more