Is a trade secret protectable on a federal level?
Prior to 1996, the answer to this question would have been “no” – trade secrets could only be protected on the state level in the United States. On October 11, 1996, President Clinton signed “The Economic Espionage Act of 1996” into law, making trade secret theft prosecutable as a federal crime. Not only is the federal status of trade secret law new, but the criminal nature is also a relatively new occurrence. Source: http://execpc.com/~mhallign/crime.
