Case Study: Investigation into ownership of intellectual property |
Abstract
A business suspects a former member of staff has stolen intellectual property belonging to the company.
Challenge
We were engaged by a major solicitors practice to provide professional advice and forensic analysis to an international retailer. They needed to analyse a former member of staff’s laptop as they suspected that the employee had stolen intellectual property from the company and was using this in a new start-up company.
Approach
- The hard drive of the former employee’s laptop was removed and imaged in accordance with established best practice evidentiary procedures.
- The e-mail archive containing information potentially relevant to the case was extracted.
- Analysis was performed on the hard drive and email database using specialised forensic software tools.
- We searched for specific keywords as outlined by management. The encrypted e-mail folders were extracted, cracked and information given to the client.
Solution
- The former employee in question had downloaded intellectual property material, PowerPoint presentations and Word documents from the company’s network and stored these on his laptop.
- Emails containing the intellectual property data in question were sent to the former employee’s personal email address.
- Emails were found linking three non-employees who were heavily involved in the new start-up company.
