On December 28, 2012, President Obama signed the Theft of Trade Secrets Clarification Act into law. It clarifies that the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (EEA) covers trade secret violations for a "product or service used or intended for use in" interstate commerce or foreign commerce.

Congress passed the act in response to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit's decision in U.S. v. Aleynikov, 676 F.3d 71 (2d. Cir. 2012), finding that a computer programmer who stole computer source code from his former employer was not criminally liable under the EEA because its scope was limited to trade secrets related to or included in a product "produced for or placed in interstate or foreign commerce."

For more on the Second Circuit's Aleynikov decision, see Legal Update, Theft of Computer Code Trade Secrets Ruled Not Criminal: Second Circuit.