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8 Berkeley J. Ent. & Sports L. 1 (2019)

handle is hein.journals/bjesl8 and id is 1 raw text is: Stealing Signs: Could Baseball's Common Practice Lead to Liability for Corporate Espionage? Andrew G. Barna* In tro du ctio n ......................................................................................................... 1 I.Sign Stealing in B aseball ............................................................................. 4 A. How to Steal Signs in Baseball & Why Sign Stealing Matters ........ 4 B. Baseball Ethics: The Right and Wrong Way to Steal Signs ...... 7 C. How MLB Teams Protect Their Signs ........................................ 9 D. Baseball's Rules Against Sign Stealing .................................... 10 II.Theft of Trade Secrets in the United States ............................................... 13 A. The State and Federal Regimes that Protect Trade Secrets ...... 14 B. W hat is a Trade Secret? ......................................................... 16 C. What Constitutes Misappropriation or Theft of Trade Secrets? ................................................................................... 18 III.How a Sign-Stealing Trade-Secrets Case Could Arise ........................... 19 IV.Would Sign Stealing in Baseball Constitute Theft of Trade Secrets? ......... 20 A. Are Baseball Signs Trade Secrets? ........................................ 21 B. Do Sign Stealers Engage in Misappropriation or Theft of Trade Secrets under the EEA? ................................................ 23 C onclusion .................................................................................................... 25 INTRODUCTION From August 18-20, 2017, the Boston Red Sox used an Apple Watch to cheat their rival, the New York Yankees.1 While the Yankees were visiting DOI: https://doi.org/10.15779/Z38XW47W8P * Andrew Barna is a corporate associate at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, DC. The views expressed in this article are solely of the author and do not reflect the views of Covington & Burling LLP or any of its other attorneys or clients. The author would like to thank his father, late grandfather and baseball coaches for instilling within him the love of baseball, his mother for driving him to practice, and Prof. Drew Larsen for encouraging him to write this article. 1. See Michael S. Schmidt, Boston Red Sox Used Apple Watches to Steal Signs Against Yankees, N.Y. TIMES (Sept. 5, 2017), https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/sports/baseball/boston- red- sox- stealing- signs-yankees.html.