Federal Protection for Trade Secrets: The Defend Trade Secrets of 2016

All businesses have intellectual property in one form or another. Historically, intellectual property rights such as patents, trademarks and copyrights were protected at a federal level, while trade secrets were covered on a state-by-state basis. This has recently changed with passage by Congress of the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA). Understanding this new law is especially important for the rubber and plastics industries, where valuable formulations and processes have long been held by many companies as trade secrets. This session will discuss trade secrets in general, and the new federal protection afforded by the DTSA)