Motorola Ices Win as Justices Let Trade Secret Law’s Reach Stand

The US Supreme Court declined to consider rejecting the extraterritorial reach of trade secrets law that gave Motorola a $407 million win over a Chinese competitor.

Hytera Communications Corp. argued in its petition that the Defend Trade Secrets Act fails to rebut the presumption against extraterritorial application of US law. The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled language explicitly allowing extraterritorial application in the Economic Espionage Act, a 1996 criminal trade secrets statute, also applies to the 2016 civil statute in the same chapter of US law.

The justices’ decision not to hear the case comes less ...