Intellectual Property Protections

Many businesses manufacturing goods often have what is known as intellectual property, which can sometimes be the company’s lifeblood. Enterprises cannot hold a competitive advantage without the secret knowledge of creating a product or performing a service. Criminal enterprises, nation-states, and malicious users often target this valuable information to become viable competitors or beat a leading business in a field.

What is Intellectual Property?

Intellectual property (IP) is any secret information used regarding creating a product. This information could include blueprints or schematics for a part, formulas for synthesizing new materials, or supply chain connections for better lead times and pricing. However, intellectual property can cover more than just recipes and products.

Intellectual property is “anything that is a creation of the mind” and includes literature, artistic works, and designs. However, just because intellectual property is a creation of the mind does not mean that any idea can be claimed or protected.

Legal Forms of Intellectual Property

As discussed in the previous section, intellectual property is any idea or creation of the mind. Still, one question that comes to mind is the different legal forms of intellectual property. In total, there are four legally recognized forms of intellectual property.

Patents: Patents are a recognized design and explanation of a new device or invention. Patents claim legitimacy and ownership of an idea. Patents protect production rights, where making a copy of a patent idea commits a patent infringement, which we will discuss later. Businesses and organizations submit patents to claim and protect their rights to any invention, whether the design makes it to the market. If a patent is approved and proven legitimate, patent protections last for 20 years.

Trademarks: Trademarks are words, phrases, symbols, or designs that identify or distinguish goods from one provider from another. Trademarks are specially created names or catchphrases for an invention or idea’s processes, properties, or qualities. Unlike other forms of legally prosecutable intellectual property forms, trademarks do not have a set lifespan. Trademarks protections remain in effect as long as registered commerce uses continue and the declaration of use is filed with the USPTO every ten years.

Copyrights: Unlike patents or trademarks used for registering or claiming inventions or phrases used for commercial products, Copyrights primarily cover or protect artistic material, such as literature, music, and artistic materials. Copyrights protection extends past the life of the creator or author.

Trade Secrets: Compared to the previously mentioned forms of intellectual property, trade secrets are a form of intellectual property not publicly available for review. Trade secrets can include specific measurements for ingredients, performing a particular process, or the suppliers and pricing for specific parts. Trade Secrets are considered an organization’s competitive advantage in their market.

File containing patents and other intellectual property.

What can I do to protect intellectual property?

Protecting your intellectual property should be one of your top priorities. While securing this sensitive information may seem complicated, we can say it is not. Here are five ways to help improve the security of your IP.

Know what intellectual property is and where it is stored: A general understanding of what information is considered intellectual property and knowing where IP is stored is a simple first step for any business. Intellectual property can include various documents than other forms of sensitive data, such as customer order details.

Secure your intellectual property both physically and digitally: Once you have located what and where your valuable intellectual property is, it’s time to lock it down. Consider creating a digital copy of paper documents and locking the document in a secure facility that few members can access. Securely back up digital forms of intellectual property to local or secured cloud storage locations. We recommend following the 3-2-1 rule, which we covered in our backup article.

Educate your employees on intellectual property and how to protect it: Protecting your business’s intellectual property is not limited to executives. All employees require education on sensitive company information and how they should respond to such attempts.

Know what tools you use to protect your information: The theft of vital or sensitive business secrets does not always require an extensive or complicated attack. Data theft can occur with an employee plugging in a USB thumb drive. Using tools that allow oversight on data transfers and logging can identify employees with malicious motives. This information is vital for identifying potential insider attacks and preventing sensitive data theft.

Think global if you operate in different countries: If your business operates internationally, you need to consider your potential competition and the legal processes that protect your business from intellectual property theft. Different laws may help you know foreign competitors depending on your operations’ location.

Fallacies of IP Theft

Shady security providers use scare tactics to sell promises of protecting your Intellectual property. These scare tactics often leave businesses misinformed about what they should fear. Below are some of the misconceptions that we aim to debunk.

1. Insider threats steal intellectual property to sell it

Insider threats that have access to sensitive business secrets are motivated by making a quick sale. Individuals may use stolen information to secure rival businesses or even start businesses.

In 2008, China’s Thousand Talents Plan incentives individuals engaged in research and development in the U.S. to provide that knowledge to China in exchange for incentives, according to a U.S. Senate Homeland Security report.
In 2019, GE almost fell victim to intellectual property theft due to a former GE engineer interested in advancing the technologies in two Chinese companies. In this case, the individual stole the information to increase their new business potential.
In June 2020, the former Harvard University Professor, Chair of the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department, was indicted for falsely reporting to federal authorities regarding his participation in China’s Thousand Talents Program.

2. Your IT Administrators are your biggest threat

Before continuing with this section, we must say this is a half-truth statement. Businesses with their own IT teams have to trust their network administrators. Companies with an internal IT team should utilize a system of checks and balances. Often this can involve having more than one Administrator and change control procedures, where if one Administrator is doing something suspicious, the other can report it. Logging and third-party audits can also prove to be beneficial.

3. Using expensive high-level security solutions is the only answer

While there are various security solutions that you can implement into your security strategy, there are alternative methods of protecting inexpensive data. USB blocks are simple devices that prevent users from using USB storage devices. Using policies that limit the amount of data any single person has access to is as effective

4. IP theft takes years to happen and requires sophisticated hacking

The theft of sensitive business secrets can take days, weeks, or even years. Depending on what methods a company takes to secure its IP, malicious insiders could easily steal this data in a matter of hours. The time needed can also depend on user permissions and the amount of data targeted. In some instances, data theft occurs by downloading information onto a thumb drive, removing media, copying to cloud storage, or sending data outside the business through multiple emails.

5. Only one person carries out the theft of business secrets

When the theft of sensitive business data happens, one person within the business or organization is usually responsible for stealing it. However, these IP theft operations often include business people, researchers, and designers who work on behalf of competitive companies looking to enter the market. It is rare for only one person to be involved in IP theft. After all, there has to be a buyer to warrant the risk.

6. Nation-states only target the defense sector

“They’re not just targeting defense sector companies,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray at the U.S. Department of Justice’s China Initiative Conference in February 2020. “The Chinese have targeted companies producing everything from proprietary rice and corn seeds to software for wind turbines to high-end medical devices. And they’re not just targeting innovation and R&D. They’re going after cost and pricing information, internal strategy documents, bulk [personally identifiable information (PII)]—anything that can give them a competitive advantage.”

Patent Infringement and IP Theft Differences

Another crime that involves the theft of a company’s inventions is patent infringement. Similar to IP Theft, patent infringement occurs after a patent is approved. Rather than stealing a business’s secrets, patents are released for the public to view once approved.

Companies that operate through patent infringement use these newfound patents to make look-alike or near-perfect copies of the already patented products. Once produced, these businesses flood the market with illegitimate products before stopping their operation.

The main goal of patent infringement is to make as much money as possible before stopping your process. The product will be made and distributed outside the United States in many patent infringement cases, where U.S. patent laws are not protected. Businesses found guilty of patent infringement typically do not suffer significant legal consequences, only to pay a royalty-based fine. However, the offending party must be found guilty of willful infringement, proving beyond reasonable belief.

Suppose a patent holder seeks legal action against a potential infringer within six years of the infringement. When determining the validity of a product, the court will not only look at the novelty or genuineness of the product. Still, it will also look to see if the infringing work is a product that is only slightly different from the original. With that said, numerous cases exist where a product will have its patent passed, only for the patent to be considered fraudulent. It is up to the inventor to understand and perform the necessary research before patenting or manufacturing a product.

In October 2020, Judge Henry Morganto ruled that the networking technology giant Cisco Systems, Inc. pay $1.9 billion for IP infringement. A private company in Virginia, named Centripital Networks Inc., brought Cisco to court for infringing on four of their patents for network protection.

Judge Morgan said Centripetal is owed $755.8 million for past use of the inventions, which he increased by two-and-a-half times after finding that Cisco’s infringement was “willful and egregious.” Morgan also ordered Cisco to pay a 10% royalty on sales of some of its products for the next three years and then 5% in royalties three years after that period.

Centripetal said sales had been doubling each year from 2015 until it met with Cisco for a partnership and “got close to getting married but got left at the altar,” as Centripetal lawyer Paul Andre of the firm Kramer Levin put it in opening arguments. He said Centripetal told Cisco about its inventions in 2016, and “Cisco kept coming back and asking for more.”

“The fact that Cisco released products with Centripetal’s functionality within a year of these meetings goes beyond mere coincidence,” Judge Morgan said.

As a proud supporter of American companies, Certitude Security® is working diligently to inform leaders and facilitate essential asset protection priorities for manufacturers and supply chains throughout the United States.

Problem discussions can be a defining moment in your career. If you are interested in value creation, learn about SPOT-Beam™ by Certitude Security®. We look forward to helping you and your business succeed!