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Cyber Spies Stealing Corporate Secrets & Technology

Client Alert | 1 min read | 04.09.14

With cyber heists plundering $1 trillion in global intellectual property (per President Obama) and driving "the greatest transfer of wealth in human history" (per NSA Director Alexander), corporations face bet-the-company threats when cyber attacks and data breaches empty their intellectual property vaults, torpedo their mergers and business deals, and crush their stock prices. In their recent article, "Pillaging the Digital Treasure Troves: The Technology, Economics, and Law of Cyber Espionage," published in the ABA's The SciTech Lawyer (Winter 2014), C&M attorneys David Bodenheimer and Gordon Griffin explore the methods employed by cyber spies to steal corporate IP and trade secrets, discuss the economic impact of cyber theft at the individual corporate level (i.e., the business case for cybersecurity), and the looming litigation, regulatory, and enforcement risks to corporations suffering technology and IP losses as a result of cyber thefts.


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Client Alert | 2 min read | 06.15.26

Kansas Federal Court Applies “Selective Enforcement” Theory to Reject DTSA Claim

A Kansas federal court held that inconsistent enforcement of trade secret rights can defeat a claim under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA). In Edelman Financial Engines, LLC v. Mariner Wealth Advisors LLC, No. 2:23-cv-02515-HLT (D. Kan. June 5, 2026), the court applied a selective enforcement theory, holding that when a company does not consistently pursue legal remedies against similarly situated former employees, that inconsistency can be affirmative evidence that it failed to protect its trade secrets. While the selective enforcement theory has appeared in academic hypothetical discussions, the decision appears to be one of the clearest judicial applications of a “selective enforcement” theory in a trade secret case....