Theme- BTW what is so confidential?Story Biswamohan PaniThe story of Biswamohan Pani is about stealing of trade secrets of the biggest chipmaker company, Intel Corporation. Pani gave his notice of departure (June 11, 2008) on May 29, 2008 and a day before that he allegedly began downloading design and manufacturing details of the then next generation Telenium Processor. Also unbeknownst to Intel, Pani started working at AMD on June 2, while he was still on Intels payroll and still had access to Intels computer systems. Intel placed a value of $200 -$400 million on the information. His supposed intent for theft was established as advancement in his career by using the information to make himself indispensable to his new employee, AMD, Intels rival. He was charged with 20 year imprisonment and monetary fine of $12500.

This case can be considered similar to the case of Sergey Aleynikov, former employee of Goldman Sachs and also Samarth Agarwal, former employer of Societe Generale. In both the cases the fraud was recognized as stealing important source codes, which were closely guarded trade secrets of the companies. The similarity also lies in the fact that both like Biswamohan Pani were making a switch over to new company of similar entity. They however were not in the payrolls of both the companies like Biswamohan Pani.

The important lesson from this story is that companies always face the risk of losing its trade secret when an employee leaves them. Companies should take reasonable steps to protect its trade secrets by taking away the access to system when the employee is in important position and has access to important files. Also, technologies should be used to monitor what employees do on system to prevent IP theft.