Forget spy movies. Court records show how IP really leaves companies: departing employees, suppliers, intrusions, recruited insiders, and AI chatbots.
Industrial espionage has an image problem: we picture a stranger in a server room at 3 a.m. The court records tell a duller and far more useful story. Intellectual property leaves companies through people who already have badges, suppliers who already have blueprints, and, since 2023, through paste buffers headed for consumer AI tools. I spend part of my professional life doing OSINT and due diligence work, and the pattern I see in verified cases is remarkably stable. This article maps that pattern: the vectors ranked by how often they actually appear in judicial records and disclosure filings, the economics, the European legal frame, and a ten-control counterprogram sized for a mid-market company, not a defense contractor.