Defend Trade Secrets Act
18 U.S.C. §§ 1836 to 1839 · Read 2026-08-15
In force since 11 May 2016. The act gives a federal civil action for misappropriation without displacing state trade secret law.
Identifier
- Identifier
- 18 U.S.C. §§ 1836 to 1839
- Level
- Federal
- Status
- In force
- Adopted
- 2016-05-11
- Applies from
- 2016-05-11
- Supervisory bodies
- DOJ Fraud Section
Named requirements
Private civil action
A federal action for misappropriation of a trade secret used in interstate commerce.
Civil seizure
Ex parte seizure in extraordinary circumstances.
Remedies
Injunctions, damages, exemplary damages and fees for wilful misappropriation.
Whistleblower immunity notice
The notice that must appear in confidentiality agreements to preserve exemplary damages.
Official source
EU acts on the same ground
- eu-trade-secrets
Directive 2016/943 harmonised trade secret protection in the Union in the same year, but without civil seizure and without exemplary damages.
United States case law
20 decisions · Read from CourtListener, Free Law Project on 2026-08-22.
- Arkeyo LLC v. Saggezza, Inc.
7th Cir.Open to review by a higher court, the source does not state the outcome
- RMS v. Commerce Bank
8th Cir.Open to review by a higher court, the source does not state the outcome
- Comet Technologies USA, Inc. v. Xp Power, LLC
9th Cir.Open to review by a higher court, the source does not state the outcome
- Dmarcian, Inc. v. DMARC Advisor BV
4th Cir.Open to review by a higher court, the source does not state the outcome
- Dmarcian, Inc. v. DMARC Advisor BV
4th Cir.Open to review by a higher court, the source does not state the outcome
- Wilbur-Ellis Company v. Josh Gompert
8th Cir.Open to review by a higher court, the source does not state the outcome
- T&T Management, Inc. v. Choice Hotels Int'l
8th Cir.Open to review by a higher court, the source does not state the outcome
- EnvTech v. DeBusk
5th Cir.Open to review by a higher court, the source does not state the outcome
- Insulet Corp. v. Eoflow, Co. Ltd.
Fed. Cir.Open to review by a higher court, the source does not state the outcome
- Versata Software, LLC v. Ford Motor Company
Fed. Cir.Open to review by a higher court, the source does not state the outcome
- PCC Airfoils, LLC v. Justin Daugherty
6th Cir.Open to review by a higher court, the source does not state the outcome
- ZipBy USA LLC v. Parzych
1st Cir.Open to review by a higher court, the source does not state the outcome
Change monitoring
The row is re-read against the publisher's own publication on a fixed interval. The dates below can be checked on the spot and travel with the API response.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Register | DOJ Fraud Section — 18 U.S.C. §§ 1836 to 1839 |
| Publisher | U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Fraud Section |
| Last read | 2026-08-15 |
| Interval | Every 30 days |
| Next re-read | 2026-09-14 |
| Status | Checked against the publisher |
Row history
Dated events concerning this exact row, newest first. No event appears here without a date in a primary source.
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-15 | Row read against the official publication | U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Fraud Section |
| 2016-05-11 | Adopted under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1836 to 1839 | U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Fraud Section |
| 2016-05-11 | Date of application according to the publisher | U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Fraud Section |
Monitoring states when the row was checked, not how the legal position should be assessed.
Cite this row
The string below travels with a memo, a case file or an agent chain. The same string sits in the citation field of the API response.
18 U.S.C. §§ 1836 to 1839, Defend Trade Secrets Act. ExploreWorld Legal, https://legal.exploreworldai.com/us/regler/defend-trade-secrets-act (hämtad 2026-08-25, bevis sha256:ca21b76e563708cd, bygge legal-2026-08-25).
- sha256:
- ca21b76e563708cdedac60e4d216623d7fab9706432974df3138627f00111598
- hämtad:
- 2026-08-25
- source_confidence:
- derived
- bygge:
- legal-2026-08-25
Derived path to the publisher. The address is built from the identifier and lands in the publisher's own register. uscode.house.gov.
The row is a source reference with an official identifier. No legal advice and no compliance decision.
Verifiable trust signals
- Six fixed blocks, one source per line
- No sentence written by a language model
- Engine version and read date on every answer
- No customer data, no documents, no advice
- Model card and audit published under the EU AI Act