IP Attorney Matthew Prewitt: "It is getting easier and easier to misappropriate large volumes of highly valuable data without leaving any clear trail."
New Risks for IP Protection
Ironically, technologies that hold great promise in the revival of U.S. manufacturing, such as additive manufacturing, also present new risks for IP protection. In the past, employers created physical security systems to protect blueprints of their product designs, noted Rory Radding, an IP partner at Edwards Wildman Palmer. Today, he notes, designs can be pirated from software systems and produced easily with the new technology.
"3-D printing allows you not only to send out drawings but create molds, prototypes, even the actual product anywhere in the world," he says.
But while technology is a significant aspect of trade secret theft, Prewitt says one of the fundamental steps employers need to take to guard their IP is to know their own employees.
"You have to be sensitive to changes in their life circumstances, changes in their career arc that could prompt them to do something disloyal," says Prewitt. "I tell clients, 'Look how much you invest in knowing your customers. Give your employees the same level of attention and focus, and 99% of the time, you will be able to identify well in advance the employee most likely to walk out the door with your trade secrets."
The concern over IP theft recently led to the creation of the National Alliance for Jobs & Innovation (NAJI), a coalition of more than 100 companies and trade associations, which is trying to raise awareness of the issue. Greenblatt, a NAJI member, notes that this crime "hits especially hard to American manufacturing. Most manufacturers are small to midsize shops that can't weather the wholesale rip-off of their intellectual property."
In February, the Obama administration unveiled a new strategy to combat IP theft. It includes more diplomatic pressure on countries suspected of IP theft, increased prosecutorial activity by U.S. attorneys and encouragement of trade associations and other groups to draft voluntary best practices guides for IP protection.
But Greenblatt says it simply isn't enough. While he is an advocate of free trade, he says the government has to take stronger action against developing nations to ensure that they are not able to sell pirated products in the United States.
