FBI Agent Points to Need for Protecting Intellectual Property From Theft

In an era of tremendous change in agricultural technology, it's more important than ever that agribusinesses, research universities and farmers protect themselves against the risks of intellectual theft.The theft of trade secrets is getting more traction among federal authorities and in court. But, if a legal battle over a trade secret goes to court, company and university officials are likely going to be asked why a product or research is proprietary. And, if so, then what practices were being done to protect that secret."Document how you are protecting your stuff, because this is where it is becoming important, because we have to define how it was a trade secret," Nichols said. "Make sure you document what you have done for your company or university to protect that claim."Agriculture has seen its share of high-profile thefts, some coming out of labs, while others come right out of cornfields. Nichols pointed to the case of Mo Hailong, who was sentenced in 2016 to three years in federal prison for stealing biotech corn seeds from DuPont Pioneer and Monsanto in the Midwest.