U.S. Government Implements First Economic Sanctions Targeting Foreign Trade-Secret Theft Under PAIPA
February 2026 sanctions mark a strategic shift in combating international intellectual property theft through coordinated Treasury, Justice, and State Department action
For the first time, the U.S. has employed economic sanctions under the Protecting American Intellectual Property Act of 2022 (PAIPA) to address large-scale foreign trade-secret theft. This coordinated enforcement effort targets a cyber-enabled network involved in misappropriating U.S. trade secrets, signaling a new ap…