The Expert Podcast

Okay You hire a private investigator They do some research on a competitor on maybe another company and maybe another party and they come up with information all good Right Well maybe not. Here's a case where a large corporation hired a private investigator to look into the activities of…a competitor. To see what they're doing to make sure what they're doing is legal. that company the company that hired the investigator was impossible foods You know the ones that make the fake meat. And they were accused of misusing private investigator in a patent fight patent fight with the competitor.

So you might think well what's the problem here Right They did an investigation. Well even at first glance it doesn't seem that bad. Motif Food Works, which is the competitior, Said investigators pretended to be potential partners look investigators You would think you can pretend to be somebody else You want to pretend to be maybe a delivery person to knock on the door to look inside to see what's there. Maybe you pretend you're a customer and wanting to buy something. And they attempted to gain information would fake identities. Well, They're being sued in court. That they improperly hire private investigators who Donned fake identities to solicit information about their products during a patent dispute. This is called pretexting.

Pretexting might seem like a normal thing to do for an investigator, but there are very strict federal laws about what you can do. Under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley act for pre. You can't use pretexting to get private information to get information that's also considered under normal conditions to be secure. In this case. motif which is the plaintiff told the court they were approached by people claiming to work for a fast food supplier and a meal kit service interested in this product. Right. And they wanted to buy stuff from that company. The fake buyers even had a website that was supposedly a meal kit product food for thought. And. It was made up to try to show that this was a legitimate potential customer

Remember just because you hire a private investigator. You are not necessarily. immune to claims being made by the subject of that investigation in this case. it's impossible foods versus motif food works, right And this is a case where the liability may extend to the client not just to the investigator. Sometimes the investigator what they did might actually be legal. Under the law. Where the use of that information by the client might be illegal Maybe the investigator didn't actually do anything wrong, but how you use that information is a problem So make sure that if you're considering hiring a private investigator, That you as a client are very. well-educated and get good legal advice about how you can use that information properly. Even if it was obtained properly. You're using it for certain purposes might not be legal ethical, or even allowed And it might even create liability for you. as a company or as a person. With regard to the plaintiff or defendant in a case.