2016 Trade Secrets Litigation Round-Up

January 27, 2017

2016 saw a number of significant developments in trade secrets law, including the passage of the Defend Trade Secrets Act, the first—and highly-anticipated—federal civil trade secrets statute.  On the criminal side, the Obama Administration continued to aggressively prosecute individuals for trade secret theft and cyber-espionage, including a number of foreign actors, as well as a professional baseball executive who pled guilty to illicitly accessing a rival team’s scouting reports.  In the civil realm, we saw several high-dollar jury verdicts and one court concluding that the location of bee hives is a trade secret.     

Jason Schwartz, Greta Williams, Michael Jaskiw and Brittany Raia discuss these and other significant 2016 developments in trade secrets law in their article "2016 Trade Secrets Litigation Round-Up" published in BNA’s Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal in January 2017.

Reprinted with permission from BNA’s Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal, 1/26/17.  © 2017, The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. 

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s lawyers are available to assist in addressing any questions you may have regarding the issues discussed in this update.  Please contact the Gibson Dunn lawyer with whom you usually work or the authors in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office:

Jason C. Schwartz (+1 202-955-8242, [email protected])
Greta B. Williams (+1 202-997-3745, [email protected])
Michael A. Jaskiw (+1 202-955-8298, [email protected])
Brittany A. Raia (+1 202-887-3773,[email protected])

Please also feel free to contact any of the following practice group leaders and members:

Labor and Employment Group:
Catherine A. Conway – Los Angeles (+1 213-229-7822, [email protected])
Jason C. Schwartz – Washington, D.C. (+1 202-955-8242, [email protected])

Intellectual Property Group:
Josh Krevitt – New York (+1 212-351-2490, [email protected])
Wayne Barsky – Los Angeles (+1 310-557-8183, [email protected])
Mark Reiter – Dallas (+1 214-698-3360, [email protected])
Michael Sitzman – San Francisco (+1 415-393-8200, [email protected])

Privacy, Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection Group:
Alexander H. Southwell – New York (+1 212-351-3981, [email protected])
Benjamin B. Wagner – Palo Alto (+1 650-849-5395, [email protected])