The last chapter outlined the various options for protecting innovation, their advantages and disadvantages. If managers could consult these criteria to identify the best strategic options for a given situation as easily as choosing the right fence to surround a yard, IP planning might be a simple matter of comparing price, availability, and preference. Would that it were so easy. Not only is the exercise of comparison more subtle, but, in fact, we have so far considered only half the story. The criteria discussed in chapter 1 set the basic legal parameters – the boundaries of your property. The ability to enforce IP rights, however, means the power to eject squatters. The fanciest estate quickly becomes uninhabitable if anyone can pull in and stay for free. As Odysseus learned when he returned from Troy to a houseful of gluttonous freeloaders with designs on his wife, having a legal property right isn't the same as vindicating it.

Not that anyone should be too eager to resort to litigation. The best lawyers would rather persuade the squatters to leave than smite them as did Odysseus. But it is essential to assess the practical availability of a legal remedy along with the suitability of the property right, since only rights you can enforce – in terms of money, time, and reliability – are worth procuring.