Economic Espionage and Trade Secret Theft - Are Our Laws Adequate for Today's Threats?
Books | Law / Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice
United States Congress
United States Senate
Committee on the Judiciary
American companies are renowned as being the most innovativein the world. Companies of every size and in every industry, frommanufacturing to software to biotechnology to aerospace, own largeportfolios of legally protected trade secrets they have developed andinnovated. In some cases, the ''secret sauce'' may be a company'smost valuable asset. The theft of these secrets can lead to devastatingconsequences. For small businesses it can be a matter oflife and death.The risk of trade secret theft has been around as long as therehave been secrets to protect. There is a reason why Coca-Cola haskept its formula locked away in a vault for decades. But in recentyears, the methods used to steal trade secrets have become more2sophisticated. Companies now must confront the reality that theyare being attacked on a daily basis by cyber criminals who are determinedto steal their intellectual property.As Attorney General Holder has observed, there are two kinds ofcompanies in America: Those that have been hacked and those thatdo not know that they have been hacked.Today a criminal can steal all of the trade secrets a companyowns from thousands of miles away without the company ever noticing.Many of the cyber attacks we are seeing are the work of foreigngovernments. China and other nations now routinely stealfrom American businesses and give the secrets to their own companies-their version of competition.And let us be clear. We do not do the same to them. We are nowgoing through a healthy debate in America about the scope of governmentsurveillance, but there is no dispute about one thing: Ourspy agencies do not steal from foreign businesses to help Americanindustry.While cyber attacks are increasing, traditional threats remain.Company insiders can still walk off with trade secrets to sell to thehighest bidder. Competitors still steal secrets through trickery orby simply breaking into a factory or office building.It is impossible to determine the full extent of the
