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Steven Hollman

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Steven Hollman is a partner in the Business Trial Practice Group in the firm's Washington, D.C. office and Leader of the Trade Secrets Team.

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This is a boom time for trade secret litigation in the U.S. The underlying conditions driving the boom include the growing mobility of the global workforce, the ease with which electronic data can be captured and moved, the emergence of nation-state actors participating in the theft of information in the global marketplace, and the time-limited benefits and uncertainties of patent litigation. Also fueling this rise are the federalization of trade secret laws with the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), the extraterritorial application of such laws to acts committed outside the U.S., and the availability of robust legal remedies in the U.S. for trade secret misappropriation. For companies seeking remedy against trade secret misappropriation, the United States offers unparalleled advantages as a legal venue: extraterritorial application of its laws combined with a broad range of monetary remedies in U.S. District Courts and the powerful exclusion of goods at the border offered in U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) Section 337 proceedings. For international companies doing or planning to do business in the U.S., understanding the risks of lawsuit is now critical.Continue Reading The Proliferation of Trade Secret Misappropriation and U.S. Enforcement Choices

Legal regimes are shifting, including in the intellectual property world as businesses increasingly seek the protection of trade secrets rather than patents to secure their confidential information. When the Defend Trade Secrets Act was passed in 2016, trade secret litigation skyrocketed, increasing more than 25 percent in a single year. While the number of trade secret cases filed in federal court fell briefly during COVID, that number is back on the rise, with over 1,200 cases filed last year. Meanwhile, patent litigation is experiencing the opposite trend: the number of patent cases filed in 2023 fell to their lowest levels since 2010. These trends highlight a shift in how businesses are protecting their companies’ confidential information that reflects an increased desire for comprehensive yet informal protection.Continue Reading The Rise of Trade Secret Litigation

Trade secrets and patents offer very different forms of protection, with different pros and cons. A trade secret may last indefinitely, while a patent has a fixed term of 20 years. Independent reinvention is permissible under trade secrets, but not with patents. And of course to obtain a patent, one must disclose the claimed invention to the public, in sufficient detail to enable one skilled in the relevant technology to make and use the invention.
Continue Reading Trade Secret vs. Patent – a False Dichotomy

During the Obama Administration, American foreign policy made a strategic “pivot” to Asia with the goal of establishing a more balanced economic, diplomatic, and security-focused approach and relationship between the U.S. and the region that would serve as a bulwark against growing Chinese influence (see, e.g., the Trans-Pacific Partnership).
Continue Reading The China Pivot: Closing the “Back Door” to Trade Secret and IP Theft

Why should companies considering trade secret litigation consider their patent portfolios?  After all, trade secrets, by definition, are secret.  They have value in the marketplace by virtue of not being disclosed.  And like the formula for Coca-Cola, that value can continue perpetually as long as the secrecy of trade secrets is maintained.  Patents, on the other hand, represent a limited monopoly granted to the patent-holder in exchange for an enabling disclosure of the patented invention, a disclosure sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention.  Of course, this public disclosure requirement for patentability destroys secrecy.  This means that once the invention is disclosed in a published patent or application, it cannot be subject to trade secret protection.  In the context of a litigation concerning whether a claimed trade secret is covered by a patent, the interface between trade secret protection and patent protection can become existential.  The defendant may contend that once the claimed trade secrets found their way into the patent’s enabling disclosure, they lost any trade secret protection.  The plaintiff will try to delineate sharply between technology covered by the patent and its disclosures, and technology that remains undisclosed and thus properly subject to trade secret protection.  So a proper understanding of the interplay between trade secret protection and patent protection can be critical to the outcome in a trade secret case.
Continue Reading Why Patents Can Matter In Trade Secret Cases

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads throughout the United States and Americans anxiously await the arrival of a vaccine, biotech companies are grappling with the uncertainty of patent protection for COVID related biomedical advances and, as a result, are turning to trade secret protection instead.  For policy-makers looking to incentivize the search for the magic bullet of an effective vaccine, this raises tough questions:  What is the best policy or mix of policies to incentivize industry and stimulate a rapid, effective vaccine?  And should that policy tilt towards sharing information or towards protecting monetary incentives?  This article addresses the limitations on patent eligibility, the role of trade secret protection, and the current federal policy landscape on biological innovation incentives during the pandemic.
Continue Reading Trade Secret Protection & the COVID-19 Cure: Observations on Federal Policy-Making & Potential Impact on Biomedical Advances