In the past several years, a number of Chinese scholars in U.S were alleged to be involved in espionage. For instance, at Los Alamos was charged for nuclear espionage and the case was widely politicized; A few months ago, a visiting scientist at Cornell University was arrested at the airport before boarding and charged of stealing cell samples. In order to allow the local Chinese community to be better aware of the legislation on intellectual property in U.S, CAST-UT presented a seminar on Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (EEA) at University of Utah on November 9. The lecture was given by Jay Zhe Zhang, board member of CAST-UT and Director of Intellectual Property of Myriad Genetic Inc. About 60 people attended the seminar.

Mr. Zhang first talked about the background of EEA and its related clauses. As the cold war ended and intellectual properties play a more important role in economic competition, U.S government and legislature realized the significance of protecting its trade secrets. As senator Arlen Specter pointed out, the trade secret theft led to over $100 billion loss to US economy and incalculable job loss. As a response, EEA was passed in 1996. According to this law, any intended or knowingly misappropriation of trade secrets to benefit non-owners of the trade secrets will be criminalized. It has a specific provision on foreign instrumentalities which is particularly applicable to China.

Rules for deciding whether an idea or information is trade secret, and laws of ownership of intellectual properties were discussed in detail. Example cases were given to show how corporations and individuals got involved in the espionage charges. Possible manners that one’s action may constitute misappropriation were thus illustrated. Mr. Zhang recommended that in order to avoid problems related to EEA, one should understand his rights and obligations; do not presume that he owns his ideas; refrain from taking souvenirs (e.g., computer codes and programs, experimental samples) from employers without permission; watch out for overzealous employers; and be discreet on submission of ideas and inventions to individuals and institutions including those in China.