What Is the Defend Trade Secrets Act?
The Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) is the federal civil trade secret statute that lets an owner of a misappropriated trade secret sue in U.S. district court when the secret relates to a product or service used in, or intended for use in, interstate or foreign commerce. The statute sits in 18 U.S.C. Chapter 90, alongside the Economic Espionage Act. That matters because trade secret disputes that once depended primarily on state law can now be litigated in federal court with federal remedies, including injunctions, damages, and in rare cases ex parte seizure, meaning a no-notice request for court-supervised seizure before the other side is heard.
How Much Does Patent Litigation Cost? Markman and Claim Construction Budget Drivers
Patent litigation cost is not a single number. It is a staged budget that changes with the patents asserted, the accused technology, venue, discovery burden, claim construction, expert work, damages theory, case-narrowing motions, trial posture, and appeal risk. Public survey data, including the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) 2025 Report of the Economic Survey, can provide broad benchmarking, but the practical question is what must be funded before the next leverage point.
Versata v. Ford: Federal Circuit Reinstates $82M Jury Award and Revisits Trade Secret Damages
In Versata v. Ford, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reinstated an $82.26 million jury award for Versata Software LLC against Ford Motor Company on May 22, 2026. The award had previously been reduced in a 2023 decision by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, which lowered the breach of contract award from $82.3 million to a nominal $3 and cut a $22.4 million trade secret misappropriation award to $0.
Balancing Interests: Collision Communications, Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Rejects Bright Line Rules for Permanent Injunctions
A patent permanent injunction does not automatically follow a finding of infringement—even a willful one carrying a verdict worth hundreds of millions of dollars. On May 18, 2026, the Eastern District of Texas addressed a Motion for Permanent Injunction by Collision Communications, Inc (“Collision”) seeking to enjoin Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Samsung Electronics America, Inc. (“Samsung”) from infringing U.S. Patent No. 7,593,492 (the “’492 Patent”).
Sued for Patent Infringement: What to Do First
A defendant served with a patent infringement complaint typically has 21 days to respond under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(a)(1)(A)(i), and the choice of forum, defenses, and timing is governed by the interaction of Rule 12, the patent venue statute at 28 U.S.C. § 1400(b), the local patent rules of the chosen district, and the one-year IPR clock under 35 U.S.C. § 315(b). Each path forecloses some defenses and preserves others; the first-month decisions are strategic, not procedural, and they shape the next two years of the litigation.
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