Counterintelligence and law enforcement: The Economic Espionage Act of 1996 versus Competitive Intelligence

Abstract

Arguing that “business is a form of warfare,” the author contends that foreign and domestic economic espionage, trade secrets theft, and unethical competitive intelligence collection activities have been targeted at America's industrial base. Now, however, with the passage of the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (the EEA), dubious competitive intelligence operations are no longer entitled to a “free ride.” The author believes that the current Code of Ethics of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals is too broad and encourages a variety of interpretations, particularly when it comes to the practices of outside consulting firms that specialize in “hard-to-get” information. Given the penalties companies now face under the EEA, the author advises businesses hiring outside competitive intelligence or “research” consultants to specifically define in writing: (1) What is hard-to-get information?; (2) How do they obtain this information?; (3) Do they adhere to SCIP's Code of Ethics?; and (4) Do they have accounts with clients' competitors and have they collected against the client for these competitors? Moreover, businesses that either engage in CI activities or hire outside contractors to do so should commit their collection plan to paper, and have it reviewed and approved by legal counsel. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.