Ten years on from the enactment of the DTSA, trade secret law has become a core pillar of U.S. IP enforcement. Over that period, courts have clarified key aspects of the statute, including reasonable measures, extraterritorial reach, damages, and the interaction between federal and state trade secret claims. At the same time, in-house counsel, litigators, and policymakers have increasingly questioned whether the DTSA is operating as originally intended, or whether targeted reform is now needed to address cost, overreach, and changing business realities. This debate will assess whether the DTSA remains fit for purpose as it enters its second decade.
- How DTSA jurisprudence has evolved since 2016, including court treatment of reasonable measures and trade secret identification.
- Concerns around litigation cost, discovery burden, and overbroad claims in modern DTSA cases.
- How courts are applying the DTSA’s extraterritorial provisions under 18 U.S.C. § 1837.
- Whether recent enforcement outcomes and damages awards align with congressional intent.
- Review the Uniform Law Commission’s Drafting Committee’s decisions in updating the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA).
Ken Corsello
Ken Corsello is an IP Law Counsel at IBM. He currently focuses on drafting and negotiating patent licenses and assignment agreements. At IBM, he has worked on patent procurement, litigation, client counseling, product clearance, and IP transactional matters.
Before joining IBM, Ken was a law clerk to Chief Judge Glenn Archer at the Federal Circuit; an Associate Solicitor in the USPTO; and in private practice at law firms in Washington, D.C. He did his undergraduate work in Computer Science at SUNY Stony Brook, received his JD from the Catholic University, and obtained an LL.M. from George Washington University.
Ken has been the chair of IPO’s Trade Secrets Committee since 2016. His recent presentations on trade secret law include participating in a panel at the USPTO’s “Trending Issues in Trade Secrets: 2019” symposium and as a witness on behalf of IPO at the 2018 hearing on “Safeguarding Trade Secrets in the United States” held by the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet.