Yesterday, Governor Christie signed The New Jersey Trade Secrets Act (S-2456/A-921) into law. As I had written last November, the Act had been approved by the New Jersey Senate and was sent to the Governor for his signature.
 
New Jersey now joins the other 46 states and District of Columbus that have adopted some or all of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA); Massachusetts, New York and Texas are now the only hold-outs. According to the press release from Senator Nicholas P. Scutari, the Act’s sponsor, the law takes effect immediately but will not apply to the misappropriation of trade secrets that occurred prior to the Act’s effective date or to a continuing misappropriation that began prior to that effective date and continued afterwards. 
 
Robert Rohrberger, who practices with Fox & Rothschild in New Jersey and blogs on trade secret issues, and Philip Kirchner of Flaster Greenberg, also an attorney in New Jersey, have advised me that the law will not contain the language providing a presumption of confidentiality for requests seeking to place confidential information or disputed trade secrets under seal.  I am sure that Robert and Philip are correct but I have not been able to yet locate the Act’s final language to confirm the standard that will be applied in this situation.  I will update this post with a link to the new statute when it becomes available.
 
Again, good news for the trade secret community in New Jersey.