United States: Trade Secrets

As companies increasingly rely on third-party AI platforms to analyze documents and automate workflows, they often provide vendors with proprietary data and trade secrets. What legal risks arise when confidential business information is uploaded to AI systems, and how can organizations protect their intellectual property rights while capturing the benefits of these technologies?

As artificial intelligence policy debates intensify globally, questions surrounding AI safety protocols, international oversight mechanisms, and intellectual property protections have emerged at the forefront of U.S.-China relations. The convergence of these issues ahead of high-level diplomatic meetings highlights the complex intersection of technological advancement, national security concerns, and the legal frameworks governing AI model development and deployment.

A federal court has dismissed a trade secret claim based on information the plaintiff developed while using a public artificial intelligence (AI) tool.

Episode 95 of the Trade Secret Law Evolution Podcast explores the strategic decision-making process between patent and trade secret protection in the context of artificial intelligence. Jordan Grotzinger and Tom Pease examine how AI technology is reshaping traditional intellectual property protection strategies and the factors companies must weigh when choosing between these two forms of IP protection.

UC Berkeley Law AI Institute brought together academics, venture capitalists, judges, lawyers, and general counsels from leading AI companies to discuss critical issues spanning intellectual property, privacy, European regulation, and AI governance. The event revealed significant gaps in law firm AI policies, explored the judiciary's role in AI implementation, and examined the fragmented regulatory landscape alongside massive US venture capital investment in AI model development.

The United States International Trade Commission offers trade secret owners a powerful but underutilized avenue for blocking imports of products that embody or use misappropriated trade secrets. With expedited timelines averaging 14 months and the authority to issue exclusion orders barring infringing products at the border, the ITC presents unique advantages over traditional federal court litigation...

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming intellectual property litigation, raising fundamental questions about authorship, fair use, and courtroom conduct. Courts are now grappling with who owns AI-generated works, whether training models on copyrighted material constitutes infringement, and how to handle attorneys who rely on AI tools that produce fabricated legal citations.

A recent Northern District of Texas ruling demonstrates how trade secret plaintiffs can successfully navigate the pleading stage paradox of describing confidential information with sufficient particularity to survive dismissal without revealing the secrets themselves. The decision provides a practical three-part framework for identifying trade secrets by category, offering document-level examples, and describing confidentiality measures that courts will accept at the motion to dismiss stage.

The Ninth Circuit's decision in Comet Technologies USA, Inc. v. XP Power, LLC reversed a $40 million verdict and established critical precedent regarding burden of proof requirements in trade secret cases under the Defend Trade Secrets Act. This episode examines how the appellate court's ruling reshapes expectations for proving trade secret misappropriation and highlights the risks of improper jury instructions when claims are dismissed during trial.