From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishindustrial espionageinˌdustrial ˈespionage noun [uncountable] BBCstealing secret information from one company in order to help another company
Examples from the Corpus
industrial espionage• The Computer Security Institute, which conducted the survey, said the losses were caused by industrial espionage, hacking and fraud.• The possibility of their involvement can not be ruled out at this stage, but neither can industrial espionage.• Under the second category they considered investigations by private detectives, industrial espionage, technical surveillance devices, and finally computers.• Whitehall denies that Echelon is involved in industrial espionage, but admits that its aims include countering industrial espionage by others.• Finally, we need a transatlantic understanding on industrial espionage.• The strength of the desire to gain particular techniques is often reflected by the extent to which industrial espionage was resorted to. 