A GOOD LESSON: The Seattle Times does an article on Harry Rasmussen, who founded the company Crest Industries, which manufactured telephone products during the 1970'2-80's. The story is sad mostly because Rasmussen took what he thought was a good business idea, obtained patents on his technology, and started changing the telephone industry in the 1980's.

Unfortunately, Crest's patent portfolio turned out to be much weaker than he expected (apparently due to poor drafting), and a change in the business climate had his company falling prey to cheap Asian knock-offs. Because law firms were not open to alternate fee arrangements for litigation, his company could not afford to defend it's patent portfolio against these copies being flooded onto the US market. As a result, the company went under.

Undaunted, Rasmussen is now working on encryption technologies, and is hoping to make a comeback. However, I would bet that he is going to be a little more vigilant in obtaining patent protection on his inventions, and perhaps may think twice before abstaining from enforcing his patent rights. Best of luck.