Trade Secret Disputes: Quantifying Damages
Corporate Disputes, 2024
The last several years have seen an evolution of the landscape of trade secret disputes. Passage of the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 has made it easier to bring litigation alleging misappropriation of trade secrets. Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) final rule banning non-compete agreements between employers and employees has refocused attention on the protection of trade secrets when employees change jobs.
Against this backdrop, five Analysis Group consultants explore the state of trade secret disputes and the role of damages quantification in these matters. In a roundtable discussion published in Corporate Disputes, Vice Presidents John Browning, Della Cummings, Minh Doan, Mickey Ferri, and Thomas McGahee evaluate a wide variety of issues, including the remedies available to plaintiffs in various jurisdictions, methods for calculating damages in these disputes, the role of experts, and challenges to assessing future profits or other benefits to misappropriators. They conclude by looking ahead to trends that may shape the future development of this area of the law and economics.