Weighing The Proposed Federal Trade Secrets Law

Half of employees who leave their jobs keep confidential corporate data, and 40 percent plan to use it in their new jobs. The digitization of business records, ubiquity of portable devices and widespread use of cloud computing have all accelerated the ease and pace of trade secret misappropriation. Indeed, trade secret theft itself has become a mounting problem for U.S. companies, which stand to lose an estimated $160 to $480 billion a year to foreign and domestic competitors.