Imagine that a court rules that you cannot enforce your company's hard-earned

intellectual property rights. You are shocked because you thought you had done

everything right. You carefully researched the chances of obtaining the patent,

copyright or trademark that is the core of your company's assets. You filed a

professionally prepared application with the Patent and Trademark Office and it

had granted the application. And you took all of the necessary steps to ensure the

validity and enforceability of your company's intellectual property rights, including

making sure other entities are not infringing those rights. So, what happened and

how do you avoid this result? Anthony F. Vittoria of Ober|Kaler explains.