Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) announced that Congress is working on legislation aimed at punishing nations that support the theft of American trade secrets. Rogers, who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, made the announcement following a cyber-security event at Covington & Burlington LLP. Rogers explained that the bill is intended to be a “punitive [measure] on nation-states that steal [American] intellectual property and re-purpose it for government companies to illegally compete in the market . . . .”
This development came on the heels of Obama signing the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act into law. That Act includes a provision that limits the U.S. government’s ability to transact for information technology with companies that have ties to the Chinese government. This is all in response to the revelatory Mandiant report, which detailed the depth of U.S. trade secret theft by foreign parties – namely China.