On October 11, 1996, President Clinton signed The Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (the EEA) into law. 1 The theft of trade secrets is now a federal criminal offense. This is a major development in the laws governing trade secrets in the United States and internationally. The Department of Justice now has sweeping authority to prosecute trade secret theft whether it is in the United States, via the Internet, or outside the United States.
Section 1832 of the EEA makes it a federal criminal act for any person to convert a trade secret to his own benefit or the benefit of others intending or knowing that the offense will injure any owner of the trade secret. 2 The conversion of a trade secret is defined broadly to cover every conceivable act of trade secret misappropriation, including theft, appropriation without authorization, concealment, fraud, artifice, deception, copying without authorization, duplication, sketches, drawings, photographs, downloads, uploads, alterations, destruction, photocopies, transmissions, deliveries, mail, communications, or other transfers or conveyances of such trade secrets without authorization. 3 THE CONVERSION OF A TRADE SECRET IS DEFINED BROADLY TO COVER EVERY CONCEIVABLE ACT OF TRADE SECRET MISAPPROPRIATION.
EEA Provisions
The EEA also makes it a federal criminal offense to receive, buy, or possess the trade secret information of another person knowing the same to have been stolen, ap-7