When is your IPR not your IPR? When it is based on a common english word? When the design right hasn't been used for some time? When someone else starts to use it in a similar field?

Two companies were heading to the high court when their advisors suggested there might be a less public and faster way to resolve their differences. The legal issues were known, even if the judgement on them was potentially unclear.  

What soon became apparent was that the parties had never met before to talk this through and after a while a rapport began to be established; priorities were discussed on both sides, real interests gradually uncovered and possible areas of mutual benefit tentatively proposed. There were hiccups along the way, changes in position when some "certainties" were challenged, reactions to inopportune words used in the heat of debate, but gradually as the day wore on, the beginnings of an understanding that not to resolve would be too costly in time, emotion and money.

So as reality crept in, possibilities became defined, actions agreed and responsibilities accepted.  And, as so often happens, two organisations seemingly determined to hurt each other identified ways they might just be able to work together in the future.