Having a patent, copyright, trademark, or trade secret is in many cases insufficient to protect a business from even the most pedestrian forms of competition. Competitors either do not understand the scope and nature of intellectual property rights or are simply unscrupulous in their business practices. In addition, it is quite common for any one instance of intellectual property to have an arguable scope of application. That means that reasonable lawyers may view issues of infringement differently. Of course, the glasses through which issues of infringement are viewed are generally tinted depending on whether the particular attorney represents the intellectual property owner or a competitor.

“Asset protection” thus pertains to the enforcement of intellectual property rights against apparent infringers. Enforcement becomes necessary when the apparently infringing parties do not care to enter into license agreements.