United States Economic and Protection of Proprietary Information Act

Economic Espionage Act of 1996

Long title	An Act to amend title 18, United States Code, to protect proprietary economic information, and for other purposes.
Acronyms (colloquial)	EEA, NIIPA
Nicknames	National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996
Enacted by	the 104th United States Congress
Effective	October 11, 1996
Citations
Public law	104-294
Statutes at Large	110 Stat. 3488
Codification
Titles amended	18 U.S.C.: Crimes and Criminal Procedure 42 U.S.C.: Public Health and Social Welfare
U.S.C. sections amended	18 U.S.C. ch. 47 § 1030 18 U.S.C. ch. 90 §1831 et seq. 18 U.S.C. ch. 227, subch. A § 3552 18 U.S.C. ch. 313 § 4243 42 U.S.C. ch. 136, subch. II § 13751 et seq.
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 3723 by Bill McCollum (R–FL) on June 26, 1996 Committee consideration by House Judiciary Passed the House on September 17, 1996 (399-3, Roll call vote 416, via Clerk.House.gov) Passed the Senate on September 18, 1996 (passed unanimous consent) with amendment House agreed to Senate amendment on September 28, 1996 (agreed without objection) with further amendment Senate agreed to House amendment on October 2, 1996 (agreed unanimous consent) Signed into law by President William J. Clinton on October 11, 1996

The Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (Pub.L. 104–294, 110 Stat. 3488, enacted October 11, 1996) was a 6 title Act of Congress dealing with a wide range of issues, including not only industrial espionage (e.g., the theft or misappropriation of a trade secret and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act), but the insanity defense, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, requirements for presentence investigation reports, and the United States Sentencing Commission reports regarding encryption or scrambling technology, and other technical and minor amendments.

The act makes the theft or misappropriation of a trade secret a federal crime. Unlike the Espionage Act of 1917 (found at 18 U.S.C. §§ 792–799), the offense involves commercial information, not classified or national defense information.

"Trade secrets" are defined in the act consistent with generally accepted legal definitions such as those used in the Uniform Trade Secrets Act and state laws based on the UTSA. Specifically it declares:

(3) 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—

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