Elon professor joins opposition to cyber-espionage legislation

"Elon University School of Law professor David Levine is one of 42 law and technology experts to weigh in opposing a cyber-espionage act in Congress.

Levine is one of four writers of a 23-page letter to leaders of the House Judiciary Committee opposing the Defense of Trade Secrets Act.

The act would allow federal civil suits for misappropriation of trade secrets. State laws currently protect those secrets. It also would allow plaintiffs to have the court seize trade secrets from defendants before even telling them they are being sued.

The Act is supposed to protect the trade secrets of American business, but Levine and his coauthors wrote it would hurt small business and that a federal law is unnecessary since there are already strong state laws.

“While we agree that effective legal protection for U.S. businesses’ legitimate trade secrets is important to American innovation, we believe that the DTSA — which would represent the most significant expansion of federal law in intellectual property since the Lanham Act in 1946 — will not solve the problems identified by its sponsors. Instead of addressing cyber-espionage head ‐ on, passage of the DTSA is likely to create new problems that could adversely impact domestic innovation, increase the duration and cost of trade secret litigation, and ultimately negatively affect economic growth,” the letter reads."