S. 1770: FAIR Act

Before you vote › Federal bills

S. 1770: FAIR Act

113th Congress · introduced 2013-11-21 · Commerce · Latest: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

federal

Save to my notebook What does this mean? Print

Official title

FAIR Act

Plain summary

Future of American Innovation and Research Act of 2013 or the FAIR Act - Authorizes the owner or lawful possessor of a covered trade secret (that is related to or included in a product or service that is used in or reasonably anticipated to be used in interstate or foreign commerce) to bring a civil action in a U.S. district court against a person (including a legal or commercial entity) who misappropriates, threatens to misappropriate, or conspires to misappropriate such trade secret: (1) while located outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States; or (2) on behalf of, or for the benefit of, a person located outside such territorial jurisdiction. Defines "misappropriate" as the acquisition or disclosure of a trade secret under specified circumstances through improper means, including theft, bribery, misrepresentation, breach or inducement of a breach of a duty to maintain secrecy, and espionage through electronic means. Excludes reverse engineering or independent derivation from the categories of improper means when such activity alone is the only alleged conduct. Permits an action to arise from conduct outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States if the conduct, either by itself or in combination with conduct within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, causes or is reasonably anticipated to cause an injury: (1) within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or (2) to a U.S. person. Provides for an affirmative defense to such an action if each alleged trade secret in dispute was readily ascertainable through proper means by other persons who did not already know the trade secret at the time of the alleged conduct. Authorizes a court, upon an ex parte application, to order the seizure of any property used to commit or facilitate specified conduct alleged in the civil action.

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

What a vote does

PSI Sci description of the legislative step (not an opinion).

The strongest published arguments

Alternatives

Needs sources: no published alternatives yet (for example a different bill, a law instead of an amendment, or keeping current law). We only show items backed by a published source. Suggest one.

How did my representative vote? · This bill's floor votes

Officials and money

Sponsor: Sen. Flake, Jeff [R-AZ] · 1 cosponsors

Cost estimate: No cost estimate published yet.

Cosponsors on this site

Jeff Merkley (D-OR)

No linked floor roll calls in our collected records yet. This does not mean the bill has never had a vote. Check the official bill history.

Sources

• Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate)
• Congress.gov
• Data: GovInfo BILLSTATUS bulk data (Library of Congress), BILLSTATUS-113s1770.xml <https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/113/s>

Record fed-us-cong113-s1770 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong113 · updated 2026-11-15 by psicol fed-bills-cong113