We build a timeline. Departing-employee activity, digital footprint and open-source research, public records, marketplace and reseller monitoring, and field surveillance where the situation calls for it. Individually those are data points. Assembled in sequence, they become something your attorney can act on.

We do not pretext, misrepresent who we are, or attempt to obtain a competitor's confidential information. Under federal trade-secret law, acquiring information through improper means is misappropriation, and liability can reach the company that commissioned the work. Anyone offering to do it is handing the other side their defense.

We can document a great deal of it: where they went, who they have contacted, what they are marketing, and how the timeline lines up against their departure. Access logs and forensic imaging of company devices are a separate discipline, and we will tell you when a computer forensics examiner needs to be brought in alongside us.

We monitor marketplaces and distribution channels, document listings and sellers, trace them where records allow, and preserve the evidence in a form that supports takedowns, demand letters, or litigation. Federal enforcement takes IP theft referrals through the National IPR Center, which is worth knowing about when a matter turns out to be larger than a single seller.

Our documentation is built to withstand challenge, with verified findings, contemporaneous records, and a documented account of how each item was obtained. Whether specific evidence is admitted is decided by the court under the applicable rules. Any firm that guarantees admissibility is telling you something it cannot know, and your litigators will know that.

Yes, with one caveat worth stating. Non-compete enforceability varies significantly by state and some states void most of them entirely. Have counsel confirm the agreement is enforceable where it matters before commissioning an investigation, so you are not paying to document a breach of something unenforceable. Non-solicitation and NDA matters are generally on firmer ground.

Then that is the report. In our experience a meaningful share of departing-employee concerns turn out to be coincidence, and knowing that before you send a demand letter is worth the cost of finding out. A misfired IP claim is expensive and it damages your position in every later one.

Completely. The engagement and our findings stay between us and the retaining party, and we work under your counsel's direction when you prefer that structure.