How can my company protect against intellectual property theft?

Jun 14 2018      On Behalf of  David M. Duree & Associates, P.C.      Intellectual Property Litigation

Running a company takes quite a bit of effort. If you are part of the management team, you likely have a lot of stress and make a lot of decisions. You are an important asset to the company that is responsible for not only personnel but also issues that arise on the job. One of those issues could be the theft of intellectual property of your company in O’Fallon. So, how do you protect your company from intellectual property theft?

First and foremost, you need to identify all of the data assets that are most important to your company. You need to find out where this data is stored, who has access to it and how it is protected. If there is little protection, you need to figure out how to make the storage of the data secured.

As a leader of your company, you also need to increase the awareness of your employees when it comes to intellectual property. Protecting your data starts with everyone on the staff at your company, including the upper-level management. If a single employee does not know how to protect data, it can lead to the theft of your intellectual property.

Try to think like a criminal as much as possible. Take a serious look at the company, where the data is stored and try to figure out how you could steal it if you were on the outside looking in. When you think like a criminal, you might be able to find weak areas that need to be fixed.

Protecting the intellectual property of your company is a very important task that all employees should concern themselves with while on the job. This helps ensure that ideas, products and other items are not duplicated by other companies.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Intellectual Property Theft/Piracy,” accessed June 07, 2018