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Attorneys say that although taking legal action is lengthy and expensive, and the outcome uncertain, it's often the only way businesses can protect their intellectual property rights. And interest in protecting intellectual property interests has grown with the shift from a manufacturing to a service economy.

"Legal protection for inventions, patents and so on has become more important," said Herbert Wamsley, executive director of the Washington-based Intellectual Property Owners Association. "Because in the information age, intangible assets such as technology are more important relative to the traditional kinds of wealth, such as land and labor and capital."

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Attorneys say the best way to protect company secrets and ideas is to take measures early on to avoid their falling into the hands of competitors.

That includes filing for patents on inventions, registering trademarks and preventing leaks of sensitive information ? either by restricting the number of people who know it, or requiring insiders to sign non-compete or confidentiality agreements.