More U.S. companies are finding intellectual property litigations a profitable source of income, and Korean companies should be prepared for this trend, a U.S. legal expert said Tuesday.

Everything from hiring consultants to setting up sales strategies and meticulous documenting should be done with care to ensure protection from such lawsuits, said Jeff Randall, global cochair of intellectual property at the law firm Paul Hastings.

“The expansion of Korean conglomerates into the U.S. market and others in terms of geography and market offering, coupled with the changing attitudes of American companies reinforcing their intellectual properties, have caused Korean companies to see soaring intellectual property litigations,” Randall told reporters during a press conference. “(The Korean companies) must be cautious because … everything they do can be used against them at the court,” he said.

Paul Hastings has been representing the Korean conglomerate Kolon in its dispute with global chemical giant DuPont in U.S. courts for more than seven years.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in April granted Kolon a new trial and new judge for the case, saying that the Korean company had been barred from presenting evidence showing that some of DuPont’s trade-secret claims for the antiballistic fiber used in police and military gear were invalid.

Randall indicated that a multiyear investigation had been conducted by the FBI and the Department of Commerce into the case. He suggested that U.S. government agencies have been increasing their monitoring and spying activities on foreign companies, including some in Korea, and that Korean firms must be ready.

“Aggressive involvement of the U.S. government reflects the rising number of American in-house legal departments viewing intellectual property matters as a means to generate profits for the company,” he said.

“The U.S. government will continue to reinforce regulation on trade secrets and will likely use civil litigation to obtain information in connection with criminal proceedings,” he said, acknowledging that any company can get trapped in litigation like Kolon.

According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office, Korean companies have been accused of patent violation in 1,015 cases since 2008, the lion’s share of the 1,235 cases filed internationally.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)