Trade Secrets of the Assault Rifles

From the Daytona Beach News-Journal of Florida, a Florida contribution to the evolving role of trade secrets, concerning old-fashioned stealing, a vendetta against a former employee, and, of course, assault weapons.


The paper reports that two men -- Mark Hazelip and Jake Economou – were arrested and charged with stealing trade secrets from Tactical Machining of Deland, Florida, a company that produces upper and lower receivers for AR-15 rifles.

The two alleged stole computer programs, blueprints, drawings and a list of customers. Hazelip quit the company in January and went to work for a competitor, Daytona CNC . Economou was later fired from Tactical Machining. According to investigators, Hazelip talked of putting Tactical Machining out of business/

Instead, after a tip from another former employee working at Daytona CNC, the police “executed a search warrant at Daytona CNC and found the Tactical Machining blueprints and drawings for the gun parts and a spiral bound notebook with the name of clients in Hazelip's desk.”

Uncle Sam’s Economic Espionage – Not Looking for Your Trade Secrets

From India’s Business Standard, a report on the comforting information, I guess, that the NSA’s collection of information from private companies is not looking for trade secrets, but only following terror money as it moves around the world.

This follows on the heels of reports that the NSA has hacked into the systems of various foreign companies including a Brazilian state oil company.


The report quotes James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence:
“What we do not do, as we have said many times, is use our foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of, or give intelligence we collect, to US companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line.”
This issue, obviously, is far from settled.