A few interesting items in the news this week that I wanted to connect together.

The first is the release of Aberdeen Group's Product Intellectual Property Benchmark Report . They report that almost 25 percent of businesses surveyed say the threat to their product IP has grown over the past two years. These manufacturers claim now to be actively pursuing improved IP protection in the face of lost sales, lost market share, and lower margins. The key to success, the Report finds, is the adoption of "IP friendly" approaches to collaboration. I'm not sure what these would be.