These examples were told to me by companies that decided to protect their intellectual property by themselves. No names are mentioned for obvious reasons.

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Situation: A small software company decided that it was appropriate to protect its source code with a copyright; they downloaded the appropriate forms from the Internet, printed out their source code and filed the source code with the federal government.

Result: They received a copyright in their source code, but because of the way that they did it, their source code is now available to anyone that wants to review it. They also missed protecting key concepts in their software that may have been protected by patents. Therefore, when they tried to raise money, they found that investors were not interested in their company because of their weak IP position.

This situation could easily have been prevented with a different approach that could have provided a strong IP position.

Situation: A company developed a new technology.  In order to tell their potential customers about the new technology they decided to take advantage of an upcoming conference. They put together a poster describing the technology and its advantages over the alternatives and had their lead scientist present their new discovery at the conference. Other company scientists also attended the conference and spoke with potential customers about their new discovery.

Result: The company lost all foreign patent rights and started a clock running during which they had to file a US patent in order to retain US rights. This situation could have been prevented while still taking advantage of the marketing opportunity of the upcoming conference. 

Also, they may have compromised their IP position by disclosing the technology to people outside their company.

This situation can also occur anytime discussions take place outside of your company, or a paper is published, but the risk can be managed.

Situation: In order to expand, a small business decided to outsource the manufacturing of some of the components they use in their assemblies. The companies signed a confidentiality agreement regarding the small business' IP. During the term of the agreement, the manufacturing company made some suggestions as to how to improve the product it was manufacturing.  The suggestions were included in an improved component.  The small business later found that the manufacturing company was selling the improved component to others, including their competition.

Result: By improving the component, the manufacturing company may have become a joint inventor with the right to exercise the IP rights without accounting to the small business. This could have been prevented in the confidentiality agreement.

Situation: A company chose a name and registered the company with the state. They didn’t register the name with the US Patent and Trademark Office because they thought the name was unique. They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next three years to market the company and its products.

Results: The company was shocked when it was sued for trademark infringement. Another company had been using the same name as a registered trademark for over 15 years. The case is still in court, but the new company has so far spent over $200,000 in legal fees.  This could have been prevented by better due dilligence when the new company was formed.