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1 Bus. Entrepreneurship & Tax L. Rev. 398 (2017)
The Defend Trade Secrets Act Whistleblower Immunity Provision: A Legislative History

handle is hein.journals/betr1 and id is 408 raw text is: 
Menell: DTSA Whistleblower Immunity


                            SYMPosIUM ARTICLE


         The Defend Trade Secrets Act

   Whistleblower Immunity Provision:


                  A Legislative History

                               Peter S. Menell**

                                  ABSTRACT

    The  Defend  Trade Secrets Act of 2016  (DTSA)  was  the product of a
    multi-year effort to federalize trade secret protection. In the final stages of
    drafting the DTSA,  Senators Grassley and Leahy introduced an important
    new  element: immunity  for whistleblowers who share confidential infor-
    mation  in the course of reporting suspected illegal activity to law enforce-
    ment  or when filing a lawsuit, provided they do so under seal. The mean-
    ing and scope of this provision are of vital importance to enforcing health,
    safety, civil rights, financial market, consumer, and environmental protec-
    tions and deterring fraud against the government, shareholders, and the
    public. This article explains how the whistleblower immunity  provision
    was  formulated and offers insights into its proper interpretation.

















    * Koret Professor of Law and Co-Director, Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, University of
California at Berkeley School of Law. This article grows out of a presentation that I made at a symposium
hosted by the Center for Intellectual Property & Entrepreneurship and the Business, Entrepreneurship &
Tax Law Review at the University of Missouri School of Law on March 17, 2017. I am grateful to
Professor Dennis Crouch for organizing the symposium and Brittany Bruns and Amit Elazari for research
assistance. I am especially grateful to the Senate Judiciary Committee staff for reaching out to me in
drafting the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016. This article is largely based on Peter S. Menell, Tailoring
a Public Policy Exception to Trade Secret Protection, 105 Calif. L. Rev. 1 (2017).


Published by University of Missouri School of Law Scholarship Repository, 201

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