Is your business at risk of piracy or plagiarism? If you're outsourcing projects off-shore, you could be leaving yourself wide open to a whole lot of trouble if you fail to take the right steps to protect your intellectual property.

When you transfer your data to offshore continents, there is always a risk of it being stolen or manipulated - and this will have severe consequences for your business.

Piracy is a serious problem that is threatening the uniqueness of products around the world.

Here are some products that are most likely to face the problem of piracy and plagiarism:


High tech products and solutions

Created after expensive research and development procedures, these kind of products face increased piracy. The people copying it can totally evade the research and developmental expenses, and build a product that gives the same results.


Computer software, music CDs, DVDs

These are other popular piracy targets, because they can be copied very easily and inexpensively. Production costs are virtually nil, so their sale brings more profits.


Popular brand names

These are increasingly being pirated and sold, because there are no costs that relate to advertising and premium pricing.


Important business data

When this is outsourced to offshore countries, it can be stolen by unscrupulous people and sold to your competitors.

Apart from these, there are many other areas that can be severely affected by piracy and plagiarism. This is because the uniqueness of the product or idea would sell extremely well. Major corporations and business enterprises are facing increased risk, and therefore are often skeptical about outsourcing.

One of the major misconceptions people have is that piracy is driven by manufacturers in the country where the goods are being sourced. However, manufacturers will not usually start the production work until they are assured of payment. They're not concerned with product marketing or predicting future market trends. Piracy of lesser established products is usually fulled by competitors or companies in the country where the products are marketed.


Tips to Reduce Piracy

Here are some ways you can stop piracy or plagiarism issues while outsourcing your data or product details to offshore countries in order to prevent any piracy or plagiarism issues.


1. Follow Steps From Request For Quote Phase

This is especially important for products with a high risk of piracy. Break down the product into parts or manufacturing stages, and get quotes on these various components. This enables you to get an approximate estimates, without showing the entire picture to the manufacturers.


2. Check On Customers

Ask your service provider or manufacturer for their list of customer to see if they also cater to any of your competitors.


3. Always Have A NDA

An NDA (non disclosure agreement) makes sure that there are no issues or misunderstandings through the deal, and that the provider understands all the permissible procedures.


4. Register Brand Names As Soon As Possible

 Be first to register, rather than being the first to market. The registration process doesn't cost much at all, and ensures your claim over the product.


5. Hire Multiple Vendors Or Manufacturers

 In the case of extremely sensitive products, you should hire more than a single manufacturer. This means that no one party gets to see the entire product.

Maneet Puri heads LeXolution IT Services, an international Knowledge Process Outsourcing firm in India that deals with an exquisite range of KPO services. Some of the specialized services include mailing list development, contact database building and other data processing and management services.