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Non-U.S. companies should not assume they are immune from civil claims under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (“DTSA”) simply because they are not U.S. companies.  Since the enactment of the DTSA four years ago, the statute’s extraterritorial application has not been a heavily-litigated issue; however, a recent series of federal decisions indicate that civil litigants may apply the DTSA to foreign defendants so long as some act in furtherance of the misappropriation occurred in the United States, even if the foreign defendants’ acts took place outside the United States.
Continue Reading Non-U.S. Companies and the DTSA: Parameters of a Developing Reality

Social media contact lists have become an increasingly important part of a business’s customer lists.  While courts are still grappling with who legally “owns” the data that the employee acquired on the employer’s dime—such as LinkedIn customer connections or access to a list of Twitter-feed recipients[1]—employers can still take steps to bolster the company’s claim of ownership.
Continue Reading Protecting Social Media Contact Lists as Trade Secrets