Introduction

AuthorJoanna H. Kim-Brunetti - Jeffrey K. Riffer - Gregory S. Bombard - Emily J. Friedman
Pagesix-xii
ix
INTRODUCTION
Why Protect a
Trade Secret?
Legal experts a gree that trade secrets are of great a nd increasing
importance to the U.S. economy. A decade ago, the estimated value
of trade secret information in the United States for public companies
alone was a staggering $5 trill ion.1 Trade secrets represent the vast
majority of U.S. intellectual property.2 Trade secret protection can
extend beyond the coverage of patents, trademarks, and copyrights,
to protect virtually all competitively sensitive and confidential in for-
mation at relatively little cost.
Corporations spend billions of dollars to protect their trade
secrets. In 2010, nearly half of the businesses responding to the Com-
puter Security Institute’s 15th annual Computer Crime and Security
Survey dedicated more than 5 percent of their intellectual technology
budgets to protecting confidential electronic information.3 The mag-
nitude of this undertaking is not surpr ising. Studies indicate that bil-
lions of dollars are lost each year as a result of t rade secret theft.
Indeed, in its 2002 annual repor t to the U.S. Congress, the Office of
the National Counterintelligence Executive reported $300 billion in
losses as the result of industrial espionage.4 Other studie s have also
reported losses in the billions, including studies conducted by Price-
waterhouseCoopers and A SIS.5
At the same time, trade secret litigation is increasing at a phenom-
enal rate. A 2008 study revealed that the number of trade secret ca ses
brought or removed to federal court doubled in the seven years from
1988 to 1995 and again in the nine years between 1995 and 20 04.6 A 2012
study found that over the past three decades, trade secret litigation
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