The Obama administration has made the protection of U.S. intellectual property a priority. But achieving that goal is rife with challenges, including the practical barriers to criminal prosecution of foreign corporations for economic espionage and trade secrets theft. Among those barriers is Rule 4 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which specifies how jurisdiction over a foreign corporate defendant may be achieved through service of process. Courts are only now beginning to struggle with the intersection of trans-national corporate crime in the internet age and Rule 4, which is woefully out-dated. Two recent conflicting court decisions highlight this disconnect: United States v. Kolon Industries, Inc and United States v. Pangang Group.
