Trade secret litigation duration statistics, by court

Trade secret litigationDTSA and trade-secret suits in federal court — take a median of 348 days from filing to resolution, based on 3,651 real cases in the public federal court record. Most resolve between 153 days and 3.4 years — full statistics, disposition mix, and district breakdown below.

Median
348d
Faster 25%
153d
Slower 25%
1.9 yr
Slowest 10%
3.4 yr

Filing to termination · 3,651 cases · median 348 days

How trade secret lawsuit cases end

Of 308 resolved cases — the observed record, not a prediction of any one case.

42%settle· typically 308d
34%are dismissed· typically 260d

Trade secret litigation duration by court

Median time to resolution in the districts with the most trade secret lawsuit cases.

DistrictCasesMedianSlowest 10%
S.D.N.Y.2211.0 yr3.9 yr

Have a specific trade secret lawsuit?

These are averages across every trade secret lawsuit. For a forecast tuned to your case — your court, your amount, your posture — get a free estimate, or the full report built from your complaint.

Other case types

Cite this data

Tertius, "Trade secret litigation: how long federal cases take, and how they end" (2026). Analysis of Federal Judicial Center Integrated Data Base records, 9.1M U.S. federal civil cases. https://usetertius.com/benchmarks/trade-secret-litigation

Free to cite with attribution — a link back to this page lets readers verify the numbers.

Source: data/fjc/civil.parquet (Federal Judicial Center), cleaned by Tertius · model tertius-acta-6. Durations are filing to termination for U.S. federal civil cases. This is observed historical data, not a prediction of any specific case, and not legal advice. Tertius forecasts timing and disposition, never merits or damages.