Protecting Your Company's Most Important AssetsThink of your company's intangible assets as the foundation of your business. Without them, you've just got a pile of rubble.

It certainly isn't news that we now live in the Information Age. But in an economy so dependent on service and technology companies, often the most valuable business assets aren't the heavy equipment or machinery in the factory, but the intangible assets woven throughout the fabric of the organization.

It's these intangible and proprietary assets that enable a company to distinguish itself from competitors. Intangible assets such as intellectual property, trade secrets, pricing formulas, customer lists, business plans, recipes and the like are typically the foundation upon which a company is built in a business world full of copycat competitors. After all, every pizza shop has an oven, but not every pizza shop has the secret family recipe for the sauce that was handed down from your grandmother to your father and now to you.