In 2013, US Customs officers discovered something suspicious—packets of rice seeds—in baggage belonging to Chinese travelers heading home after a visit to the U.S. It turns out that the travelers were employees of a Chinese crop-research institute, and had been handed the seeds in an act of attempted industrial espionage.
Ventria Bioscience CEO Scott Deeter was interviewed on CNBC’s Power Lunch to share the company’s experience with the attempted theft of their intellectual property. While the attempt ultimately failed and the crime was successfully prosecuted, the experience provides an important window into the great value of cutting-edge technologies like ExpressTec, and the potential vulnerability of American enterprise to foreign industrial espionage. In this interview, Mr. Deeter shares his thoughts on the importance of protecting the intellectual property and creativity of scientific innovation that drives progress in global healthcare.
