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Trade Secrets – Expect Claims to Keep Rising

Publication | 01.12.22


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Several strong trends are driving companies to protect trade secrets more aggressively

Federal trade secrets litigation has heated up in the past few years. Since passage of the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) in 2016, yearly claims brought under the act have more than doubled from 2016’s 476 to 1,008 in 2020—an annualized growth rate of 21 percent. DTSA cases accounted for 73 percent of all trade secrets cases filed in 2020.

Astor Heaven, a Crowell & Moring Litigation Group partner focusing on trade secrets cases, expects this trend to continue. “A powerful mix of ingredients is pushing businesses to defend their trade secrets more forcefully by filing DTSA cases,” he says. “More employees are changing companies due to the pandemic, more companies are using trade secret classification to protect their intellectual property, and courts have emphasized the importance of the statute of limitations.”



Read the complete article in the Litigation Forecast 2022. 

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