The materials analysis services available at Anderson Materials Evaluation, Inc. enable us to help your company identify and prove instances of intellectual property theft in the products of other companies. Our ability to determine the composition of materials, whether bulk materials, additives at low concentrations, fine particles, thin films on surfaces, or surface treatments is often enough to prove a violation of a patent or that a violation of a non-disclosure agreement has occurred. In other cases, the measurement of physical properties, such as thermal or mechanical properties, of a material may be required. We can often provide the analyses necessary to determine whether intellectual property theft has occurred. This makes it possible for a company to actively protect its intellectual property.

Intellectual property and counterfeit goods problems are common in international trade. In 2017, Operation Mail Flex, an investigation by Customs and Border Protection, seized 43% of the express mail packages arriving from Hong Kong and The Peoples Republic of China. Most of the seizures were because the items were counterfeit, though some were controlled substances.  The European Union Intellectual Property Office and the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) recently released a report that counterfeit and copyright-infringing goods smuggled into the European Union came primarily from China and Hong Kong in 2019 and 2020.  Do you know whether your product is being counterfeited, your intellectual property is stolen, or your copyright is being violated by China or other countries which ought not to be in the World Trade Organization and have Most Favored Nation status?

Among our experiences in intellectual property theft have been:

• The identification of coating chemistries on silica-based particles by means of XPS surface analysis and optical microscopy
• The identification of processing methodologies of shape memory alloys in dental drills analyzed with DSC