Intellectual property theft could be called a silent killer as much as those who have high cholesterol or blood pressure. While that analogy might seem strange, the theft of intellectual property (IP) can meansomeone stealing your IP without you even knowing it after storing it on your hard drive. Once you find out you’ve had something stolen online, there usually isn’t any way to reverse it, and things like a trade secret may be in the hands of your competition or unknowns overseas.
Such is the case with many businesses around the world that lose billions of dollars every year to IP theft. But as the National Crime Prevention Council reminds us, you have ways to prevent your IP from being stolen.
The Stealing of Trade Secrets
Trade secrets are some of the most stolen IP for obvious reasons of gaining the advantage in business. You may think that your competition wouldn’t resort to stealing them, though you might be underestimating how cutthroat the business world really is. The opportunity for local theft is still there, though trade secrets can typically be stolen in subtle ways. One of those is a spy scoping out your trade show, or perhaps convincing an employee to give away information when calling your company.
While online thieves can be an issue if you don’t have continual monitoring or effective firewalls, you should always be careful what your employees say during conversations at trade shows. Some spies have been known to pick up information just overhearing conversations in cafeterias at trade events. Employees should also be aware of any suspicious phone calls trying to fish for information.
Direct IP Theft
Sometimes IP theft can mean something tangible being stolen so someone can gain information on secrets. That might mean a direct trade secret written as a document. Or it could be a product that the competition wants to inspect to apply certain features. They can do this by merely walking into your brick and mortar store and having a spy look at what you have on the shelves.
Unprotected IP
When you don’t protect your IP with copyrights, patents, or trademarks, you open yourself to losing control of your IP if someone infringes on your rights. Many businesses have valuable IP they don’t realize they have that should be protected. If it’s sitting unprotected around your company, someone working in your company who moves on to another career could take the idea and use it in their own business as another subtle form of theft.
Here at Traklight, we try to emphasize the importance of protecting business IP to avoid all the elements of theft going on today. With our IP Vault, you can be sure your IP won’t get in the hands of thieves thanks to our 24/7 monitoring. We also educate on how to get your IP protected with copyrights, patents, and trademarks, plus how to make money on IP afterward
Contact us so we can tell you more about our services. We’ll give you the latest information on IP theft so you can be on the lookout for the increasingly subtle ways thieves try to find moneymaking properties.
Don’t waste another minute — your business, your livelihood, your everything can depend on your IP.
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