Trade Secrets Finally Gets Toward the Top of the National Agenda

You know trade secrets has finally hit it big when the subject is covered in USA Today and the report is on the Obama Administration’s a new strategy to combat the theft of American trade secrets.


The administration has released its 141-page Strategy on Mitigating the Theft of U.S. Trade Secrets. This comes just after the president signed an executive order “designed to help U.S. computer networks guard against cyberattacks,” as USA Today put it.

The story contains comments from Victoria Espinel, the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement coordinator.

In the words of USA Today:

“The strategy includes diplomatic engagement with nations where incidents of trade secret theft are high, working with industries on the best ways to protect their secrets, and stepped up prosecutions of business espionage.”

The plan comes out at the same time as reports of Chinese Red Army hacking into U.S. computers.

Espinel says: "The administration will continue to act vigorously to combat the theft of American trade secrets that could be used by foreign companies or foreign governments to gain an unfair commercial advantage over U.S. companies."

Sounds like we’re finally getting serious about a problem that has been allowed to grow for years.