3. What are the alternatives?

Imagine you are the Vice President for Intellectual Property at a U.S.-based sporting goods manufacturer that specializes in producing and selling shoes and clothing. Your company spends millions of dollars developing its intellectual property, which includes confidential designs, logos, molds, specifications, trade secrets, technical, production, sales, and marketing information, as well as signs, labels, packages, wrappers, and ads. To remain competitive, you decide to shift the majority of production to overseas producers who have lower labor and raw material costs than domestic producers, thus reducing your overall production costs. Now the question becomes: how does your company structure an agreement with overseas manufacturers that protects your intellectual property rights? And what recourse will you have if the manufacturer violates this agreement?