Trade Secrets Institute

Learn more about the Trade Secrets Institute.

Meet the TSI fellows: Sean Comerford '12, Carolyn Wall '12, and Lillian Tan '12.

View photos and watch video coverage of TSI’s recent Trade Secrets Symposium.

Recent Decisions and Developments

Art of Living Found. v. Doe

Decision Date: May 1, 2012 | Court Name: United States District Court for the Northern District of California

N.D. Cal.: Free Exercise Clause Does Not Preclude Evaluation of Asserted Trade Secrets of Spiritual Nature

Miller UK Ltd. v. Caterpillar, Inc.

Decision Date: April 26, 2012 | Court Name: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

Illinois district court rules that unjust enrichment and fraudulent inducement claims concerning information not rising to level of trade secrets are not preempted by ITSAe

Allergan, Inc. v. Merz Pharmaceuticals, LLC, et al.

Decision Date: April 12, 2012 | Court Name: United States District Court for the Central District of California

Botox manufacturer successfully obtains injunction blocking competitor’s product release on allegations of trade secrets misappropriation

The Trade Secrets Institute website includes a database of judicial decisions, filings, pleadings, briefs, and statutes. The decisions and briefs can be searched in a number of ways: by document type, trade secrets subject matter, trade secrets issue, or by jurisdiction. Start your search.

Commentary

Trends in Trade Secret Enforcement

By Lillian Tan ’12

Trade secret protection, normally left to the jurisdiction of states, has become a growing concern of the federal government. Over the last several months, the federal government’s prosecution of trade secrets theft under the Economic Espionage Act (“EEA) (18 U.S.C. §1831 et. seq.) spiked, and it has found other means of enforcement such as Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) (18 U.S.C. §1030 et seq.) and even Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. §1337(a)(1)(A)).

In the last three years alone, U.S. Attorneys have used the EEA in a number of trade secrets theft cases. Two cases, United States v. Yang and United...