Law360, New York (July 21, 2009, 12:55 PM ET) -- Intellectual property has become so important to corporate business that the relative strength of a patent portfolio now separates the good from the great and the acquisition targets from the long-term players.

This has shifted the focus of corporations from generating raw numbers of patents to implementing an effective and cost-efficient patent harvesting program — that is, an ongoing program that consistently generates valuable patent applications covering technologies of strategic corporate importance.

This article discusses changes that larger companies can make to their patent harvesting efforts,...