Intellectual property crimes

State and local governments have been forced to safeguard intellectual property,1 largely because the advent of the Internet has made rapid dissemination of information commonplace.2 While owners of intellectual property can protect their rights by pursuing civil remedies, the threat of civil sanctions is often insufficient to deter theft of trade secrets or infringement of patents, trademarks, or copyrights.3 Some intellectual property thieves view civil damages as simply another cost of doing business.4 Intellectual property theft has become so common that some companies hire "good hackers" to perform vulnerability assessments of their networks to troubleshoot potential security risks.5 By 2000, American companies lost over $1 trillion from intellectual property theft6 and that number is expected to continue growing.