O'Melveny and Myers' David Almeling Argues for Federalization of Trade Secrets Law

A friend of Womble Trade Secrets and fellow trade secrets litigator, David Almeling of the O'Melveny & Meyers firm in San Francisco, has written an interesting article that will be published in the upcoming issue of the Fordham Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal titled "Four Reasons to Enact a Federal Trade Secrets Act." We think Mr. Almeling makes some persuasive arguments in this article.

Here is an abstract: “Trade secrets stand alone as the only major type of intellectual property governed primarily by state law. Patents, trademarks, and copyrights are all governed primarily by federal statutes. Trade secrets, in contrast, are governed by fifty state statutes and common laws. The result is that trade secret law differs from state to state. David S. Almeling, an attorney at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, argues in “Four Reasons to Enact a Federal Trade Secrets Act” that it is time to eliminate these differences—and the significant problems they cause—by enacting a Federal Trade Secrets Act. In particular, Almeling argues that enacting a FTSA achieves four aims: (1) solving the interstate conflicts caused by having fifty different trade secret laws; (2) making the acquisition and protection of intellectual property more efficient; (3) assisting small businesses, which rely disproportionately on trade secrets to protect their intellectual property; and (4) unifying intellectual property law at the federal level.”

We have received permission from Mr. Almeling to create a link to the article and will do so once it is published by Fordham.