Intellectual Property Theft and the “Insider” Threat
Is your Intellectual Property Safe from Departing Employees?
Intellectual property, or IP as it is often called, is any material or idea that is protected by copyright, trademark, patent, or trade secret laws. This type of property includes client lists, poems, mechanical inventions, and logos. Intellectual Property Theft occurs when a person knowingly takes, uses, misappropriates, or otherwise steals property that is protected under intellectual property laws. Intellectual property can constitute more than 80 percent of a company’s value and U.S. businesses lose an estimated $59 billion due to intellectual property theft each year. So intellectual property theft is a pretty big deal!
Sadly, in the age of computers, IP theft by employees is steadily on the rise. The statistics supporting this problem are staggering:
* 85% of employees admitted to taking company documents and information when they left a job.
* 25% reported taking source code and patent filings.
* 35% took customer data, including names, phone numbers and email addresses.
* 85% admitted to taking company strategy documents and presentations.
What’s more, companies may not know their IP has been stolen until they suffer a sudden loss of clients, or plummeting sales when the former employee goes to work for a competitor, or starts his or her own competing business. Even after an IP theft has been confirmed, it’s estimated that 75% of the IP thieves will never be caught…Unless we get involved.
Digital Acuity has helped hundreds of companies detect the IP thieves, recover their data, and prosecute the guilty parties. Our thorough forensic exam can help uncover the width and breadth of the theft, pinpoint when the theft occurred, and help you prosecute the guilty parties. And our results will be legally defensible.
If you suspect Intellectual Property theft,
be sure to follow these “Best Practices” and
call us at 602-354-2700.