Can't we all just get along?

The Manufacturer has an interesting article this month about the conflict between IP protection and global collaboration. Yes, it does feature a few of the products from my company.
I see this as being the key issue that succesful innovators will figure out: how to create new ideas (through collaboration with partners/customers/competitiors) at a rate sufficient enough to overcome any loss due to being copied. If you can’t work that out then the only choice seems to be to protect what’s yours…and that is a path to a slow death. There are just too many good ideas and smart people outside your company to “single source” ideation to the people that work for you.
The Manufacturer.com – IP protection in a global workplace