Washington, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) today issued the following statement after voting in support of S.1890, the Defend Trade Secrets Act. In July, Flake joined U.S. Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) to introduce the bill which is intended to combat the theft of corporate trade secrets, a crime that costs U.S. businesses hundreds of billions of dollars annually.

“For innovation to keep driving economic growth in the United States, innovators must be able to protect their intellectual property,” said Flake. “I’m pleased that the Senate has passed this much needed bill that both addresses the fact that this crime extends to foreign entities misappropriating U.S. trade secrets and empowers victims of trade secret theft to protect their intellectual property in federal court.”

Background: The Defend Trade Secrets Act empowers companies to protect their trade secrets in federal court by harmonizing U.S. laws to create a uniform national standard for trade secret theft. This will allow companies to move quickly to federal court, with certainty of the rules, standards, and practices to stop trade secrets from being disseminated and losing their value. In addition, the bill mandates a report that will analyze the scope and breadth of the theft of trade secrets of U.S. companies occurring outside the U.S. and provide recommendations of legislative and executive branch actions that may be undertaken to reduce the threat and economic impact caused by the theft of U.S. trade secrets occurring abroad.  

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