Smart Business Magazine, Mar 2013

10 Smart Business Indianapolis March 2013 CLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL Keeping your companys secret information secret is a matter of increased focus on protecting company intellectual property In the last three decades international trade has increased by a factor of seven but unfortunately this advance has also ratcheted up the rate of trade secret theft an impediment that costs corporations hundreds of billions of dollars a year That rate of growth has catapulted multinational commerce to such prominence that it now accounts for a third of all economic activity worldwide The world is getting to be a smaller place at a remarkably fast pace says Joseph Ahmad a principal in the Houston law firm Ahmad Zavitsanos Anaipakos Alavi Mensing When we were kids there might have been a handful of companies that did a particular thing and probably most or all of those companies were in America Nowadays were seeing competition come from everywhere says Ahmad who primarily represents business executives in trade secret cases and employment related litigation The barriers to entry are rapidly declining so now a lot of companies are facing competition from all over the world Other factors driving the increased incidence of trade secret theft include large pockets of economic stagnation around the globe and the widespread conversion of analog business information to digital formats which lends itself more readily to leaks and cyber attacks In the last few years there are a couple of key reasons why trade secret theft has grown says Pamela Passman president and CEO of the Center for Responsible Enterprise Trade a nonprofit group whose mission is helping companies reduce counterfeiting piracy and trade secret theft One reason is the economic times were going through People feel constrained and theyre working under great financial pressure so many people are cutting corners Also a great deal of companies information is becoming digitized and therefore more easily transferable So instead of walking out of a place with stacks and stacks of papers a person can walk out with a USB drive that has a huge amount of information on it Increased cyber leaks and cyber attacks are also contributing to the problem Passman says BY PETE FEHRENBACH PFEHRENBACH@ SBNONLINE COM Many times an employee will enter into a confidentiality agreement and then theyll work for the company for 10 or 20 years and theyll forget they even have the agreement JOSEPH AHMAD PRINCIPAL AHMAD ZAVITSANOS ANAIPAKOS ALAVI MENSING SPECIAL REPORT LEGAL