It wasn't so long ago that intellectual property (IP) didn't much matter to company managers and investors. Copyright was for writers and artists, trade secrets were difficult to protect, and, as for patents, they seemed at best a necessary expense for large technology companies. Not that IP was exactly ignored; epic patent battles followed the introduction of photography, the telegraph, and television, to name just a few disruptive technologies, while the music and broadcast industries struggled over copyright royalties for most of the twentieth century. But few companies viewed IP as a strategic asset. Particularly in the United States, courts historically detected the foul odor of monopoly when asked to enforce IP rights, and the universe of protectible subject matter was limited – software, for example, lay firmly outside the patent system, while the prospects for biotechnology remained uncertain. Lawsuits involving patents were (and still are) enormously expensive, yet few companies licensed their IP routinely and voluntarily. These circumstances left IP uncertain in scope, difficult to enforce, and unlikely to yield an economic return, absent exhausting and potentially ruinous litigation.

As a result, managers spent little time fretting over IP. Often disinclined to dive too deeply into the details of their companies' technology in any case, many simply delegated, trusting that responsibility would reach the sober hands of engineers, scientists, and lawyers padding about their offices in mismatched socks. And why not? Business success seemed to depend no more on IP than the locks on the doors.