Speakers & Organizers   

www.rmarkhalligan.com Biography
R. Mark Halligan is a nationally recognized expert in trade secrets law. He has been at the forefront of Internet law, cybercrimes, intellectual asset management, competitive intelligence, digital evidence discovery and now Sarbanes Oxley compliance issues.

He is a principal in the Chicago intellectual property law firm of Welsh & Katz, Ltd. Mr. Halligan is on the adjunct faculty of John Marshall Law School where he teaches Advanced Trade Secrets Law and Trade Secrets Litigation. Mr. Halligan graduated from Northwestern Law School in 1978 and summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Cincinnati in 1975.

Mr. Halligan is also a nationally recognized speaker and lecturer on the law of trade secrets and The Economic Espionage Act of 1996.

He has served as special counsel to the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) and he is on the Faculty for the Centre for Operational Business Intelligence. Mr. Halligan also serves on the Faculty of the Competitive Business Center at Simmons College in Boston.

Mr. Halligan wrote the first nationally published article on the EEA on December 9, 1996 in the National Law Journal and he has been tracking EEA prosecutions since that date. Mr. Halligan is the sponsor of The Trade Secrets Home Page on the Internet which features an online database of trade secret decisions summarized by Mr. Halligan.

Mr. Halligan is a Fellow in the American Bar Foundation and the past President of the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago (IPLAC). He is also the current Chairman of the ABA Committee on Trade Secrets.

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Session BI35:
Identifying and Protecting Trade Secrets in Public and Private Sectors
February 20, 15:00 - 15:45 TRADE SECRETS: Theft and Protection
Abstract:
On October 11, 1996, President Clinton signed "The Economic Espionage Act of 1996" into law. The theft of trade secrets is now a federal criminal offense. This is a major development in the law of trade secrets in the United States and internationally. The Department of Justice now has sweeping authority to prosecute trade secret theft whether it is in the United States, via the Internet, or outside the United States. But is this act enough and how well does this protect Trade Secrets from theft in both the public and private sectors?

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 the public.

A violation of Section 1832 can result in stiff criminal penalties. If the trade secret theft benefits a foreign government, foreign instrumentality or foreign agent, the penalties are even greater.

R. Mark Halligan, Esq. will discuss the issues surrounding trade secrets from theft to protection whether the act is purpertrated by national or international thieves.