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08/29/2004: "one of the risks of outsourcing"

From what I gather, my former employer does a lot less outsourcing to India now, but for a while there were more off-shore contractors than on-shore employees. To be fair, the VCs made them do it, but in the process they did burn down several people who needed the jobs they lost. AFAIK, ye olde former employer didn't experience any IP loss due to their offshoring. Doesn't mean it doesn't happen to other companies that play the game of trading off profits for being involved in the community.


In a case that exposes the intellectual-property risks of outsourcing in India, a small San Carlos software company has sued Mumbai police for refusing to investigate the alleged theft of proprietary source code by an employee at its Indian subsidiary.

Sandeep Jolly, the founder and chief executive of Jolly Technologies, said U.S. technology companies should beware of the risks of doing business in his native land at a time when many are taking advantage of the cost savings of offshoring and entrusting sensitive software development and testing work to Indian contractors. Protection of intellectual property is still a new concept for lawmakers, police and prosecutors, he said.

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