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EXPLORING 21st CENTURY SKILLS and ISSUES

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How to Catch a Spy There’s a war going on, but it’s not waged in any ocean, remote desert, or jungle. This war is waged in office buildings, farms, factories, and labs by spies engaged in industrial espionage . It’s a war for information called trade secrets . Read the following pages, then see if you can catch an industrial spy!

The effects of [IP] theft include a tremendous loss of revenue and reward for those who made the inventions or who have purchased the licenses to provide goods and services based on them, and the loss of jobs PRODUCT PREVIEW associated with the theft. Theft of intellectual property is also undermining both the means and the incentive for entrepreneurs to innovate. That slows the development of new inventions and industries that can further expand the world economy and continue to raise the prosperity and quality of life for everyone. Unless current trends are reversed, there is a risk of stifling innovation, with adverse consequences for both developed and still developing countries. – The Report of the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, 2013 What are trade secrets ? Trade secrets are all forms of intellectual property, They include manufacturing processes, recipes and formulas, and other information such as customer data bases, and pricing and marketing strategies that companies keep secret to give them an advantage over their competitors. Who are industrial spies ? Sometimes disgruntled employees steal information from a company to damage the company or to sell it for personal gain. However, industrial spies are increasingly sponsored by foreign governments wanting to advance that particular industry in their home country. How serious a problem is industrial espionage? Trade secret theft is such a serious threat, the FBI has designated industrial espionage as its number two priority – second only to terrorism.

Lesson 11 | You’re the Entrepreneur 206

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