Protecting Technology in Business

Posted On: 2006-07-18
Length: 55:02

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Welcome to the show. I'm very glad you could join us today for another edition of Small Business Trends Radio. My name is Steve Rucinski. I'm the show's executive producer and your substitute host today filling in for Anita. So let's get started quickly. I'm sorry to say there's going to be no Today's Trend segment, as Anita normally does, but she'll be returning next week and I'm sure she'll have a terrific new trend to talk about. The topic of today's show is "Protecting your Technology When an Employee Leaves." And we're going to break that subject title into four areas, four major topics. Number 1. What should be done in advance of hiring a new employee to protect our technology and intellectual property? Number 2. How should a business protect its technology and IP, intellectual property, from outside threats? Number 3. How should a business protect its technology and IP from inside threats? And finally Number 4. What should a business owner do if the technology or IP is stolen from the company?

This is the fourth and final in our four-part series entitled, "Productive Employees and Happy Bosses through Technology" featuring our guest again today, Michael Dees, who's the president of E-Security Direct. Parts 1 through 3 can be found on the Voice America archives or on our podcast companion site, www.smbtrendwire.com. Ok. Let's get started. Welcome back, Michael!

Good to be back, Steve.

Ok. Let's dive right in. Michael why don't you start out first off and define for our listeners what we're referring to when we speak of intellectual property, also known as IP?

Well, when we're speaking about the law, intellectual property is an umbrella term for various legal entitlements which attach to certain types of information, ideas, or other intangibles. These could be, for example, copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets or something as simple as customer lists or other pieces of information that the company needs in order to maintain its business.

Ok. Great, thanks. You know lately in the media of all forms it seems like we're just inundated with news reports of laptops stolen, getting confidential employee customer service personnel and other private information. Is this really something that should concern, you know, small to medium business owner, and if so, Why?

Well Steve, I think...