Obama signs trade-secrets law authorizing federal civil suits, seizure of property
President Barack Obama. Frederic Legrand - COMEO / Shutterstock.com
President Obama on Wednesday signed a law giving companies defending trade secrets greater access to federal courts and allowing for the civil seizure of property to prevent dissemination of trade secrets.
The Defend Trade Secrets Act authorizes civil suits in federal court when companies are defending trade secrets related to products used in interstate commerce, the National Law Review reports. Previously, litigants had to file suit in state court unless they could establish diversity jurisdiction for a federal lawsuit, the New York Law Journal reports. USA Today, Patently O and McClatchy DC also have stories, while the Huffington Post has an article by Michelle Lee, director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
“This new law provides yet another arrow in the quiver of IP protections,” Lee writes, “by creating a federal civil cause of action for trade secret theft, including the availability of a uniform, reliable and predictable means of protecting valuable trade secrets anywhere in the country.”
The civil procedure mechanism was the most controversial provision in the bill, according to the National Law Review and the New York Law Journal article. It allows courts to issue orders providing for the seizure of property necessary to prevent the propagation or dissemination of the trade secret.
