The purpose behind criminalizing trade secret theft was to create a disincentive for malicious actors to steal the intellectual property of others. Other than piecemeal legislation for underlying offenses and the Espionage Act of 1917, no federal laws adequately addressed economic and industrial espionage. Espionage has existed for thousands of years where spies stole military secrets from their adversaries (Nasheri, 2005). It was a way to remain militarily competitive by observing an enemies troop level or tactics. Following the American Revolution, the US found itself in the midst of significant labor shortages and employed ways of acquiring the technology of others and luring the specialists who understood those technologies. It was, in fact, the publicly held view that we should create and acquire as much technology through economic espionage as we could from Europe; which was technologically superior at the time.
As an industrialized super-power, the US military and its industries far outpaced other world competitors, and, as a result, we have been targeted by adversaries and allies alike. Following the Cold-War and the collapse of the Soviet …show more content…
The pharmaceutical and computer industries, for instance, produce products which can cost millions of dollars in research and years to develop. It was also during this period, that a series of espionage related events caught the public's attention. The Economic Espionage Act of 1996, was created because there was no federal law which offered both punitive and compensative relief as a result of espionage related offenses. Prior to the act, the US was vulnerable from the theft of trade secrets because there was no real leverage other than a civil remedy. According to Nasheri, the “single most important reason it was passed was to address the problem of foreign economic espionage” (2005,
As an industrialized super-power, the US military and its industries far outpaced other world competitors, and, as a result, we have been targeted by adversaries and allies alike. Following the Cold-War and the collapse of the Soviet …show more content…
The pharmaceutical and computer industries, for instance, produce products which can cost millions of dollars in research and years to develop. It was also during this period, that a series of espionage related events caught the public's attention. The Economic Espionage Act of 1996, was created because there was no federal law which offered both punitive and compensative relief as a result of espionage related offenses. Prior to the act, the US was vulnerable from the theft of trade secrets because there was no real leverage other than a civil remedy. According to Nasheri, the “single most important reason it was passed was to address the problem of foreign economic espionage” (2005,