Intellectual Property & Trade Secret Cases
When your ideas walk out the door, we track them down.
Trade secret theft, stolen source code, poached client lists, and IP that leaves with departing employees. Investigated by former FBI agents and attorneys, and documented for court. Licensed in New York State.
Former FBIAttorney LedLicensed in New York State
The Stakes
The most valuable thing you own is the easiest to copy.
Formulas, code, designs, and client relationships are what set you apart, and they fit on a thumb drive. The figures below show how much is at risk and how quietly it leaves.
$225B+
lost to IP theft in the U.S. each year, at minimum
38%
of U.S. GDP comes from IP intensive industries
72%
of departing employees admit to taking company data
90 days
the window around an exit when most IP theft happens
Sources: FBI and the IP Commission Report; U.S. Department of Commerce; Infosecurity Magazine.
The Danger Window
Most IP theft happens on the way out the door.
Trade secrets rarely leave in a dramatic breach. They leave in the ordinary weeks around a resignation, copied to a personal drive, forwarded to a private email, or uploaded to a cloud account the night before someone gives notice. Research shows the large majority of IP theft happens in the 90 days surrounding an employee's departure, which makes the exit the single most important moment to be watching.
When intellectual property theft happens
Most of it clusters in the 90 days around an employee's exit.
Within 90 days of a resignation70%
The rest of an employee's tenure30%
Source: Infosecurity Magazine.
Who Takes It
It is usually someone you hired.
The threat is not a faceless hacker. It is the engineer who emails source code to a personal account, the salesperson who walks a client list to a competitor, or the executive who starts a rival firm with your playbook in hand. Most people who take data do it quietly, right before they resign, when they assume no one is looking. The pattern is consistent, and it is exactly what a trained investigator knows to look for.
The departing employee problem, by the numbers
Taking data on the way out is common, and it peaks right before notice.
Admit taking company data when they leave72%
More likely to take data right before resigning69%
Brought a past employer's data to a new job63%
Sources: Infosecurity Magazine; Cyberhaven Insider Risk Report; Code42 Data Exposure Report.
The Blind Spot
By the time you notice, the trail is cold.
Most companies never see it leave. Standard security tools are built to raise an alarm going forward, once someone is already on a watch list. They are not built to look back at what an employee did in the weeks before they quit, which is when the damage was already done. That is the gap we close. We reconstruct what left, when, and where it went, from the records most tools cannot read.
Can your company see what a departing employee took?
Most cannot, which is why the theft goes unproven.
No visibility into what departing staff took71%
Have that visibility29%
Source: Code42 Data Exposure Report.
What We Investigate
The cases we handle.
Intellectual property theft takes many shapes, but the goal is always the same: someone wants what you built without doing the work. We investigate the trusted insider, the departing employee, the competitor, and the outside actor, and we build the record that shows what was taken and where it went. Because much of a modern company's worth is information rather than inventory, protecting it starts with proving what happened.
Trade secret misappropriationStolen source codeClient & customer list theftDeparting employee exfiltrationPatent & design infringement leadsCounterfeiting & brand abuseBreach of NDA & non-competeCorporate & competitor espionage
Our Process
How an IP and trade secret investigation works.
Every engagement is confidential and built to hold up if it ends in court or in front of a regulator.
01
Confidential consultation and scoping
We learn what was taken or what you fear was taken, define the questions that matter, and map the fastest path to answers, all under strict confidentiality.
02
Evidence preservation
We move quickly to secure devices, cloud accounts, email, and file activity before anything can be wiped or overwritten.
03
Forensic exfiltration analysis
We reconstruct what was copied, emailed, uploaded, or moved to a drive, by whom and when, and trace where it went.
04
Discreet field investigation and surveillance
Where the law allows, we corroborate the digital trail with lawful surveillance and fact development, including ties to a competitor, a new venture, or a buyer.
05
Interviews and source development
We conduct structured interviews and develop sources to fill the gaps that records alone cannot.
06
Court-ready reporting and testimony
You receive a clear, defensible report built to support an injunction or trade secret litigation, with expert testimony that stands up to cross examination.
Why Insight
Federal experience. Legal discipline. Evidence that holds.
Our team brings more than 70 years of combined investigative, intelligence, and legal experience to the private sector.
Former FBI and national security
Our investigators come from the FBI and national security backgrounds, trained in economic espionage, trade secret theft, and complex financial crime.
Attorney led, built for court
Attorneys guide every case, so the work meets the standards a trade secret claim, an injunction, or a regulator will demand.
Licensed in New York State
We are fully licensed New York State investigators, working within state privacy and investigative law.
Discreet, neutral, defensible
We work quietly and report only what the evidence supports, which is what makes our findings hold up under scrutiny.
Questions
Common questions about IP and trade secret cases.
What counts as intellectual property or trade secret theft?
It covers the taking or misuse of proprietary information that gives your business an edge: trade secrets such as formulas, source code, processes, and pricing, along with client and customer lists, designs, and research. It often involves a departing employee, a competitor, or an insider moving that information out of your control.
Can you prove an employee took our trade secrets to a competitor?
Often, yes. A forensic review of company devices, cloud accounts, email, and file activity can show what was accessed, copied, or sent, when it happened, and where it went. We can then corroborate that trail with lawful field work that ties it to a competitor or a new venture.
How fast should we act if we suspect theft?
Quickly. Digital evidence gets overwritten, and trade secret protection can depend on showing that you took prompt, reasonable steps to protect your information. The sooner we preserve the evidence, the stronger your position, whether the goal is an injunction, a settlement, or a case.
Will your findings support litigation or an injunction?
That is the standard we build to from day one. Attorneys guide the process, evidence is preserved and documented properly, and our reports are written to support trade secret litigation, temporary restraining orders and injunctions, and cross examination, with expert testimony when it is needed.
The trail is freshest right now.
Speak with a licensed New York State investigator today, in complete confidence. Former FBI, attorney led, and built for court.
Sources & Data
Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property (IP Commission Report), as cited by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The annual cost of IP theft to the U.S. economy, counterfeit goods, pirated software, and trade secret theft, is estimated at $225 billion to $600 billion.
U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Share of U.S. GDP from intellectual property intensive industries.
Code42 Data Exposure Report, Cyberhaven Insider Risk Report, and Infosecurity Magazine. Figures on data theft by departing employees and the timing of intellectual property theft.
Statistics on this page reflect United States data as reported by the sources above.
Former FBI professionals, attorneys, and national security experts delivering high-integrity private investigations built for legal, corporate, and high-risk environments.
INSIGHTS
- The Insider Threat Sitting Inside Your Company Right Now
- Due Diligence Failures That Cost Companies Millions
- Before You Sue, Know the Facts: Why Smart Attorneys Use Investigators Before Filing
- Social Media Never Forgets: How Digital Investigations Expose Contradictions
- The CFO Is Not the Only Risk: How Internal Fraud Hides in Plain Sight
Reach Us
We are diligent and determined because we care about our clients.
1335 Jefferson Rd, Rochester, NY 14623