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Policy

Senate Panel Approves Trade Secrets Bill

by Glenn Hess, special to C&EN
February 8, 2016 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 94, Issue 6

Bipartisan legislation recently adopted by the Senate Judiciary Committee would provide new recourse for U.S. companies victimized by theft of their corporate trade secrets. The measure is backed by a broad industry coalition that includes DuPont, Boston Scientific, Eli Lilly & Co., Pfizer, and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, a biotech industry trade group. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), coauthor of the proposed Defend Trade Secrets Act (S. 1890), says the bill would give businesses more consistent legal protections when their trade secrets are stolen. The legislation would allow companies to file civil complaints in federal court alleging trade-secret misappropriation. Currently, companies have to rely on state courts or federal prosecutors to bring legal action—and the U.S. Department of Justice lacks the resources to prosecute all trade-secret theft cases. Federal courts are better equipped to address the interstate and international nature of trade-secret theft than are state courts, the bill’s supporters argue. Similar legislation (H.R. 3326) has been introduced in the House of Representatives and has 107 cosponsors.

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