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A recent report by legal analytics firm Lex Machina has spotlighted the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California as the leading federal court in the nation for handling trade secret litigation. The 2024 Trade Secret Litigation Report, which covers the years 2021 to 2023, reveals that California’s central district topped the charts with 191 trade secret cases, accounting for 5.4% of all such cases filed nationwide.
Second with 173 cases (4.9%) was the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York; third with 160 cases (4.5%) was the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Notably, the most active judge in this subject was found to be U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel of the Western District of Texas.
Seth Gerber and Debra Fischer of Morgan Lewis & Bockius, both based in Los Angeles, were noted for defending the second-highest number of trade secrets cases in the United States, alongside Jeremy Douglas Sosna from Littler Mendelson in Minneapolis. Meanwhile, Thomas Gerard Pasternak of Taft Stettinius & Hollister in Chicago represented defendants in the highest number of trade secret cases (27), and Peter George Siachos of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani led as the top plaintiff’s attorney with 32 cases filed.
The report’s author, Elaine Chow, outlined important developments and conclusions in trade secret lawsuits. Defendants typically lose to plaintiffs four to one, frequently as a result of consent decisions. Courts usually provide injunctive relief: 73% of the time, permanent injunctions, 57% of preliminary injunctions, and 66% of interim restraining orders are issued.
The report also notes a steady increase in claims under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) and a decline in state-level trade secret cases. Gerber anticipates that trade secrets litigation will continue to grow, particularly as the DTSA’s extraterritorial application addresses cross-border disputes involving U.S. corporate trade secrets.
As trade secret litigation evolves, the data suggests that California’s courts will remain a critical battleground for these complex and high-stakes cases, reflecting broader trends in intellectual property law and enforcement.