Did you know that upward of 9% of all products bought and sold around the world violate the property rights of United States corporations, businessmen, or entrepreneurs? Statistics show that these violations occur in a number of ways: for example, insider theft of intellectual property occurred in 35% of cases in the Information Technology industry, 13% of Banking and Finance cases, and 12% of cases in the Chemical industry. Similarly, trusted business partners were responsible in over 17% of intellectual property thefts, while former employees accounted for 21%. For this reason, if you need help managing intellectual property, are concerned your intellectual property rights have been violated, or have other concerns about copyright and patent laws, it may be necessary to hire an intellectual property lawyer.

As with any legal matter, hiring a lawyer for intellectual property protection is a delicate matter. Because patent law isn’t a commonly discussed subject, it can be difficult for a layperson to know for certain if their patent has been violated. For this reason, it is important for patent holders to learn basic patent information. Moreover, even if an individual has a case, the expenses of a long court case may be outside their means. For this reasons, small businesses often are unable to protect themselves from intellectual property theft, or even pursue enforcement actions when they face losses. In spite of this, there has been a dramatic rise in the investigations of intellectual property theft in rent years, with the United States International Trade Commission rising by 80.6% in 2010 and 23.3% in 2011. Therefore, if your knowledge of patent information reasonably suggests that your intellectual property rights have been violated, and you are willing to pay to recover your lost assets, hiring an intellectual property lawyer may be advisable.

We live in a world where copyright violations and other forms of intellectual property theft are becoming increasingly common and are beginning to seeming increasingly benign. Nearly 25% of all Internet traffic is used to consume infringed content, and up to 1/3 of software products and music CDs are believed to be fake. However, these thefts put businesses and entrepreneurs at risk of significant losses and should not be ignored. If you believe your situation requires legal assistance, contact an intellectual property attorney today.
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