Trade Secret Litigation at an All-Time High
A departing employee’s laptop. A cloud folder that shouldn’t have been accessible. A competitor rolling out suspiciously similar specs six months later. Trade secret litigation has moved from a niche corner of IP practice to one of the most active battlegrounds in commercial and employment litigation — and 2026 is proving it isn’t slowing down.
The forces driving the surge are structural, not temporary. Distributed and hybrid workforces have scattered proprietary data across personal devices, cloud accounts, and collaboration tools far outside a company’s controlled environment. Employee turnover and lateral hiring remain elevated across nearly every industry.
The numbers back it up. Federal trade secret filings hit an all-time high in 2025, topping 1,500 cases — the most in a decade — with the Central District of California the busiest venue at 100 new suits. Claims under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act still anchor more than 80% of new federal suits, but state-law-only claims have risen for two straight years. Settlement remains the most common resolution, at roughly 65% of cases from 2023 to 2025, though that trails settlement rates in other federal civil litigation categories (Lex Machina, 2026 Trade Secret Litigation Report).
The result? A steady climb in trade secret claims across technology, manufacturing, financial services, and professional services.
Why Expert Testimony Is Essential
Trade secret cases are technical by nature, so juries and judges generally can’t evaluate misappropriation claims on legal argument alone.
Plaintiffs must prove the information was actually secret, that reasonable measures protected it, and that the defendant improperly acquired or used it. Each element typically turns on technical evidence that only a qualified expert can present plausibly.
Damages are no simpler: unjust enrichment, avoided development costs, and royalty structures all require analysis a layperson can’t reconstruct alone.
Experts to Retain
Digital forensics specialists are usually the first call, tracing data access logs, file transfers, and device activity to establish the mechanics of an alleged theft.
Cybersecurity experts assess whether a company’s protective measures met the “reasonable steps” standard required under most trade secret statutes.
Financial and valuation experts translate the misappropriation into a defensible damages figure, whether through lost profits, unjust enrichment, or royalty-based models.
In technical industries, a trade secret subject-matter expert may also be needed to establish that the information at issue meets the legal definition of a trade secret in the first place.
As filing volume continues to climb, counsel on both sides of the docket are finding that early expert engagement is becoming a differentiator in how these cases resolve.
Contact Intellex below to find the right expert for your trade secret case.