While outsourcing can stretch budgets and shorten timelines on new development projects, the dangers of intellectual property (IP) loss also exist. Not only do U.S. and E.U. privacy and IP laws rarely apply in offshore locations, but also few foreign laws exist abroad that cover IP protection and the theft of trade secrets. Understand the risks and take the necessary steps to properly manage your company's knowledge assets.

What Classifies as Intellectual Property?

Intellectual property can be defined as any asset comprised of knowledge and/or ideas. Examples of IP include patents, copyrights, trademarks, regulatory licenses, and trade secrets, as well as innovative and original business practices or processes.

Customer and business intelligence can also fall under the IP umbrella if they are valuable to a company's processes and create competitive differentiation.

A False Sense of Security...