The short answer is, “not much—yet.” In May 2016, the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) was enacted to much fanfare (at least in the legal community). The bipartisan effort was hailed as a sea change in protecting businesses from trade secret theft and elevating trade secret protection to federal question jurisdiction, similar to patents, trademarks and copyrights. The impact of the DTSA was anticipated to be greater in New York than in other states, because New York remains one of only two states (with Massachusetts) that has not enacted or followed the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA), on which the DTSA is based.
Under the DTSA, the basic elements of a typical trade secret litigation are not much altered, especially in states in which the UTSA has been in place for years. However, as more cases are filed under the DTSA, some of the new tools and strategies that the DTSA now makes available to New York-based business litigators are becoming more apparent.
