The United States Patent and Trademark Office defines a trade secret as information that has three characteristics. The information

1. has either actual or potential independent economic value by virtue of not being generally known,
2. has value to others who cannot legitimately obtain the information, and
3. is subject to reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy.

The purpose of this course is to widen the professional engineer’s understanding of engineering ethics through consideration of seven case studies of the theft of trade secrets by engineers. The studies describe actual cases that have been successfully prosecuted by agencies of the U.S. federal government. The ethical—rather than legal— aspects of the cases are developed by identifying specific passages in published Standards of Conduct for professional engineers that were violated by the engineers who were found guilty of theft. This course is based on the document, “Engineering Ethics—Case Studies in Stealing Trade Secrets,” written by Mark Rossow, June 18, 2023.

Learning Objectives

At the successful conclusion of this course, you’ll be able to identify and discuss:

• Knowing the three characteristics of trade secrets
• Knowing the motivations for typical cases of trade secret theft
• Learning how to relate a type of crime to a specific standard of conduct
• Understanding common types of trade secret theft
• Recognizing state regulatory laws for professional engineers as a source of engineering ethics principles