Sarah Tishler was quoted in a New York Times article about concerns that American AI companies are being targeted by Chinese copycats.
The story is titled “American A.I. Companies Say Chinese Copycats Are Quickly Catching Up.” The June 6, 2026, article was written by Cade Metz, who writes about technology for The New York Times.
he article details allegations by leading American artificial intelligence companies, such as Anthropic, that Chinese rivals are illegally using a technique called “distillation” to harvest proprietary U.S. data and rapidly narrow the technological gap between the two nations. It also explores the technical and legal complexities of curbing this practice.
In the article, Sarah is quoted as follows:
Is that illegal?
That’s not clear, said Sarah Tishler, a partner at the law firm Beck Reed Riden who specializes in trade-secret litigation.
Some legal scholars argue that the practice violates the Defend Trade Secrets Act, a 2016 law that allows businesses to sue over the theft of trade secrets, but courts have not explicitly decided that.
Copyright law does not necessarily apply because distillation is an effort to copy the behavior of the system, as opposed to copying text verbatim.
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Even if U.S. law did bar illicit distillation, Ms. Tishler said, it would most likely have little effect on behavior in China.
“So much of this conduct is happening outside the United States,” she noted. “It would be very challenging to address it through a U.S. court.”
Sarah Tishler is a partner at Beck Reed Riden LLP. She is a commercial litigator whose practice focuses on complex business disputes in state and federal courts, including intellectual property, breach of contract, and fraud claims. Her experience also includes regulatory investigations, international arbitration, securities litigation, shareholder litigation, class-action litigation, and pre-transactional advising. She frequently writes and lectures about the intersection of AI and trade secrets law.
Beck Reed Riden LLP is among the leading authorities in trade secret, noncompete, and unfair competition law, and our experience handling these matters is backed by our extensive employment law and business litigation experience. Our hand-picked team combines attorneys with complementary expertise and practical experience.
The Wall Street Journal featured Beck Reed Riden LLP’s noncompete agreement experience. In 2016, the White House issued a report entitled, “Non-Compete Agreements: Analysis of the Usage, Potential Issues, and State Responses,” relying in part on Beck Reed Riden LLP’s research and analysis, including its 50 State Noncompete Survey.
Russell Beck’s work in this area is well recognized, and includes:
- Over thirty years of experience working on trade secret, noncompete, and unfair competition matters
- Assisting the Obama White House as part of a small working group to develop President Obama’s Noncompete Call to Action
- Authoring the book Negotiating, Drafting, and Enforcing Noncompetition Agreements and Related Restrictive Covenants (6th ed., MCLE, Inc. 2021), used by other lawyers to help them with their noncompete matters
- Authoring the book Trade Secrets Law for the Massachusetts Practitioner (1st ed. MCLE 2019), covering trade secrets nationally, with a focus on Massachusetts law
- Drafting and advising on legislation for the Massachusetts Legislature to define, codify, and improve noncompetition law
- Teaching Trade Secrets and Restrictive Covenants at Boston University School of Law
- Founding and administering the award-winning blog, Fair Competition Law
- Establishing and administering the Noncompete Lawyers and Trade Secret Protection groups on LinkedIn, with over 1,660 and 870 members, respectively, around the world
- Founded and chaired the Trade Secret / Noncompete Practice for an AmLaw 100 firm
In addition, Russell was honored for his work in this area of law in the 2020 Chambers USA Guide, which stated that Russell Beck is “an expert in the field of trade secret and restrictive covenant law,” and is also noted for his “ability to adjust and come up with successful solutions.” Chambers noted that Russell “basically wrote the new Massachusetts statute on noncompetes” and that “he’s an expert in employee mobility and nonrestrictive covenants.”
Sarah Tishler is a partner at Beck Reed Riden LLP. She is a commercial litigator whose practice focuses on complex business disputes in state and federal courts, including intellectual property, breach of contract, and fraud claims. Her experience also includes regulatory investigations, international arbitration, securities litigation, shareholder litigation, class-action litigation, and pre-transactional advising.
Beck Reed Riden LLP is Boston’s innovative litigation boutique. Our lawyers have years of experience working with clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups and individuals. We focus on business litigation and employment.
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