A Case Study:
Stolen Formulations

The Case

A former employee of Company A was discharged, started his own company (CompanyB), and began producing a specialty coating. Company A, however, suspected that theemployee had actually stolen the proprietary formula for this coating. Polymer SolutionsIncorporated (PSI) was asked to analyze this coating from Company A and thecorresponding coating from Company B to objectively document their similarities anddifferences.

After extensive analysis, PSI determined that the likelihood of the formula being identicalwas very high. The corresponding coatings from the two companies showed virtually nodifference. The chances of this occurring by coincidence were astronomical.

Full Study> StolenFormulations.pdf (216 KB)

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The Approach

In order to arrive at the conclusion of chemical similarity, Polymer Solutions Incorporatedused two major analytical techniques to compare and contrast the coating samples:

• Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy
• Capillary gas chromatography (GC)

The Fourier Transform Infrared spectra of thecoating formulations were acquired. An infraredspectrum provides a rather unique fingerprint ofan organic chemical or mixture of chemicals as aresult of absorbance values (peaks) that havespecific intensities (the y-axis) at specificwavelengths (the x-axis).

The coating samples were analyzed byGas Chromatography (GC) on a capillarycolumn, as shown to the left. Gaschromatography separates volatile chemicalcompounds based on their differing rates oftravel through a column through which a gasstream is flowing.

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