The economic espionage act: Turning fear into compliance

Businesses must show that they have taken reasonable measures to protect their proprietary trade secrets in order to invoke the protection of the Economic Espionage Act of 1996. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines can be a roadmap for meeting this requirement, since they provide instructions on how to design, implement, and enforce an effective program to prevent and detect violations of the law. By complying with the seven steps outlined in the Guidelines, businesses can show that they have exercised due diligence in seeking to prevent and detect criminal conduct by employees and other agents. The author discusses each of these requirements as applied to the EEA. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.