§1839 — Title 18 Crimes and Criminal Procedure | U.S. Code

Summary

Defines key words used in this chapter. Foreign instrumentality means an agency, office, department, group, or business that is largely owned, run, or controlled by a foreign government. Foreign agent means an officer, employee, or other representative of a foreign government. Trade secret means any kind of business, technical, scientific, or financial information — like formulas, plans, designs, programs, codes, or methods — that the owner has tried to keep secret and that has real or potential value because others cannot easily learn it by proper means. Owner means the person or company that legally owns or has the rights to a trade secret. Misappropriation means getting, using, or sharing someone else’s trade secret without permission, either by improper methods or when the person knew or should have known it was obtained improperly or under a duty to keep it secret. Improper means includes theft, bribery, lying, breaking a secrecy duty, or spying, and does not include reverse engineering, independent creation, or other legal methods. Trademark Act of 1946 means the law approved July 5, 1946 (15 U.S.C. 1051 et seq.), often called the Lanham Act.

Title 18, §1839

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As used in this chapter—

(1)the term “foreign instrumentality” means any agency, bureau, ministry, component, institution, association, or any legal, commercial, or business organization, corporation, firm, or entity that is substantially owned, controlled, sponsored, commanded, managed, or dominated by a foreign government;

(2)the term “foreign agent” means any officer, employee, proxy, servant, delegate, or representative of a foreign government;

(3)the term “trade secret” means all forms and types of financial, business, scientific, technical, economic, or engineering information, including patterns, plans, compilations, program devices, formulas, designs, prototypes, methods, techniques, processes, procedures, programs, or codes, whether tangible or intangible, and whether or how stored, compiled, or memorialized physically, electronically, graphically, photographically, or in writing if—

(A)the owner thereof has taken reasonable measures to keep such information secret; and

(B)the information derives independent economic value, actual or potential, from not being generally known to, and not being readily ascertainable through proper means by, another person who can obtain economic value from the disclosure or use of the information;

(4)the term “owner”, with respect to a trade secret, means the person or entity in whom or in which rightful legal or equitable title to, or license in, the trade secret is reposed;

(5)the term “misappropriation” means—

(A)acquisition of a trade secret of another by a person who knows or has reason to know that the trade secret was acquired by improper means; or

(B)disclosure or use of a trade secret of another without express or implied consent by a person who—

(i)used improper means to acquire knowledge of the trade secret;

(ii)at the time of disclosure or use, knew or had reason to know that the knowledge of the trade secret was—

(I)derived from or through a person who had used improper means to acquire the trade secret;

(II)acquired under circumstances giving rise to a duty to maintain the secrecy of the trade secret or limit the use of the trade secret; or

(III)derived from or through a person who owed a duty to the person seeking relief to maintain the secrecy of the trade secret or limit the use of the trade secret; or

(iii)before a material change of the position of the person, knew or had reason to know that—

(I)the trade secret was a trade secret; and

(II)knowledge of the trade secret had been acquired by accident or mistake;

(6)the term “improper means”—

(A)includes theft, bribery, misrepresentation, breach or inducement of a breach of a duty to maintain secrecy, or espionage through electronic or other means; and

(B)does not include reverse engineering, independent derivation, or any other lawful means of acquisition; and

(7)the term “Trademark Act of 1946” means the Act entitled “An Act to provide for the registration and protection of trademarks used in commerce, to carry out the provisions of certain international conventions, and for other purposes 11 So in original. The closing quotation marks probably should follow “purposes” instead of “ ‘Lanham Act’)”., approved July 5, 1946 (15 U.S.C. 1051 et seq.) (commonly referred to as the ‘Trademark Act of 1946’ or the ‘Lanham Act’)” 1.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

The Trademark Act of 1946, referred to in par. (7), is act July 5, 1946, ch. 540, 60 Stat. 427, also popularly known as the Lanham Act, which is classified generally to chapter 22 (§ 1051 et seq.) of Title 15, Commerce and Trade. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see

Short Title

note set out under section 1051 of Title 15 and Tables.

Amendments

2016—Par. (3)(B). Pub. L. 114–153, § 2(b)(1)(A), substituted “another person who can obtain economic value from the disclosure or use of the information” for “the public”. Pars. (5) to (7). Pub. L. 114–153, § 2(b)(1)(B)–(3), added pars. (5) to (7).

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 2016 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 114–153 applicable with respect to any misappropriation of a trade secret (as defined in this section) for which any act occurs on or after May 11, 2016, see section 2(e) of Pub. L. 114–153, set out as a note under section 1833 of this title.

§1839 Definitions