Due diligence: no joke?

Among the bits and pieces that float into this Kat's email in-box on Friday afternoon, when the pleasures of the weekend loom large and the effort to concentrate on work becomes disproportionately onerous, is a regular circular from his friends at Glasgow-based IP asset merchants Metis Partners. Unlike most circulars from businesses in the IP services sector, which are fairly unsubtle hints that someone wants your business, the weekly Metis missive consists of nothing but jokes, in which the theme may be determined by some work that Metis is doing or, in weeks when this is not the case, by some topical event.

This Kat has of course heard all the jokes before and wouldn't admit to finding any of them funny anyway, it being well known and long established that felines have no sense of humour whatsoever.  However, this Friday he found, within the Metis missive, a joke which struck a chord with him since it seemed to him to have some genuine relevance to intellectual property management.  The joke runs like this:

A duck walks into a general store and asks the manager:
- "Got any fresh fruit?" - "No."
- "Got any fresh vegetables?"
- "No. We have only canned and dry goods." 

The next day, the duck returns:
- "Got any fresh fruit?"
- "No."
- "Got any fresh vegetables?"
- "No. I told you yesterday, we have only canned and dry goods. If you come back tomorrow and ask me the same question, I'll nail your flippers to the floor." 

On the 3rd day, the duck walks in and asks:
- "Got any nails?"
- "No."
- "Got any fresh fruit?"

This duck has no
fear of nailed flippers ...

The essence of this tale is clear: if you ask the right question and get the information you need, you can reasonably expect to be able to proceed with confidence.  This is the crucial element of due diligence, in all its guises.  Whether you are considering purchasing another business's IP portfolio and need to know what precisely it contains, or if you are planning a new product and need to know whether it falls within a competitor's IP rights, in each case there is an imbalance in the distribution of information that has to be redressed.  The seller of an IP portfolio knows, or should know, exactly what he is selling but the would-be purchaser, at least initially, does not.  Your competitor knows what rights he holds and will have some idea of their scope and power, but the new entrant to the market may not know what obstacles await him.  Once you ask the right questions, then (assuming you get some reliable answers) you can make your next move, like the duck in the joke who feels safe to carry on in his own sweet way once he learns that the general store manager can't nail his flippers to the floor ...