Worden was caught selling details on the 401 process, a process designed to increase the speed and quality of film during development, during a sting operation conducted by Kodak after two of their competitors, Konica and Agfa-Gevaert, told Kodak that he had approached them selling trade secrets.
After the sting operation, Worden was sentenced to 15 months in prison and a fine of $30,000 for interstate transportation of stolen property.
[3] In 1992, Worden retired from Kodak and set up a consulting firm located in Santee, South Carolina.
They then set up a sting operation in which a Kodak executive and a security consultant, both of whom were former FBI agents, set up a meeting posing as two employees of a phony Chinese company where Worden offered to show them how to make high quality acetate, using the 401 process, for a fee between $125,000 and $500,000.
[6][7] The FBI executed a search warrant, seizing about 40,000 documents from Worden's home in Santee before taking the case to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
While Worden was still an employee at Kodak, he was in charge of recommending which technologies should be patented and thereby made public and which should be treated as trade secrets.
[9] Worden used this consulting firm to broker stolen documents and his knowledge of Kodak technology to competitors.
However, the current and retired employees did not physically give stolen technology or documents to Kodak competitors.
In 1995, a Kodak executive and a security consultant posed as employees of a phony Chinese company trying to break into the modern film manufacturing market and met with Worden in an Atlanta hotel room.
[7] The sting operation shows that Worden's willingness to sell Kodak technology noting that secrets are not always patented.
[7] Eastman Kodak sued the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Corp. in 1997, accusing 3M of using trade secrets pilfered by Worden.
The most important result of this case is the development and implementation of the EEA which has allowed for the better prosecution of those who sell trade secrets.