A 46 year-old man has entered a guilty plea to a federal judge in Indianapolis on charges of illegally sending trade secrets to China and Germany worth an estimated $300 million. The Chinese-born man was a scientist and researcher at Dow AgroSciences when he shared proprietary information to someone working at the Hunan Normal University in China and then at the Technical University in Dresden, Germany.

The man admitted to telling the other person about the development of organic pesticides, including biological materials. He has been charged with a dozen counts of theft, five counts of foreign transportation of stolen property, and attempted theft of trade secrets in order to benefit foreign governments under the Economic Espionage Act.

If you are facing charges of trade secret theft, contact the Appleton trade secrets lawyers of Kohler & Hart at 414-271-9595 today.

Businesses have a variety of reaons to protect their trade secrets. These secrets are often valuable because they give the company a competitive advantage.

In order to protect this asset, businesses are required to take a number of measures to protect the trade secret. These measures often include nondisclosure agreements with employees and other means for preventing the trade secret from becoming public information. 

However, if another company or individual discovers the trade secret on their own or through reverse engineering, then the company may not be able to claim that the trade secret was stolen. 

If you have been charged with a crime related to a company's trade secret, contact the Appleton trade secret lawyers of Kohler, Hart, & Priebe at 414-271-9595.