Companies, are you protecting your valuable trade secrets? When was the last time you revisited your trade secret policy? A cautionary tale…Indianapolis-based Dow AgroSciences was recently the victim of an alleged “patient and calculated” plan to “drain” the company of technology that took 20 years to develop.

A former Indiana scientist accused of illegally sending trade secrets worth $300 million to China and Germany was ordered detained Tuesday on rare charges of economic espionage.

A federal indictment unsealed in Indianapolis alleges that 45-year-old Kexue Huang, who was born in China, passed on proprietary information about the development of organic pesticides to Hunan Normal University while he worked as a researcher for Dow AgroSciences in Indiana from 2003 to 2008.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Ridgeway said Huang, a Canadian citizen with permanent U.S. resident status, used a “patient and calculated” plan to “drain” the Indianapolis-based company of technology that took 20 years to develop.

The indictment alleges that Huang published a paper in China about the organic pesticides and also directed students at Hunan Normal in further research.

Source: Associated Press (August 31, 2010)

For more information on protecting your valuable trade secrets: Creating a Trade Secret Policy