Since the advent of the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) in 2016, trade secret misappropriation cases have been filed at an increasing rate. Over the past three decades, damages in litigation which include trade secrets have totaled approximately $3 billion with the five largest awards each being over $100 million. While many of these cases contain multiple types of trade secrets, the largest category included business relationships at 37% followed by trade secrets pertaining to designs at 35% and methods/processes at 34%.

In 2017, following the enactment of the DTSA, Stout published an independent analysis of federal trade secret cases decided from 1990 through the summer of 2017. The Trends in Trade Secret Litigation Report 2020 is a continuation of the original report, including analysis on federal trade secret cases decided through the summer of 2019.

The report includes in-depth analysis on:

• Federal trade secret litigation spanning three decades
• The impact of the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016
• How evolving patent law may influence the ways businesses protect their intellectual property
• Increased workforce mobility/technology usage and related trade secret misappropriation
• The historical impact of trade secret litigation trends across types of trade secrets, industries, jurisdictions, damages, companion claims, and more