Valuable tech knowledge

Patent disputes bring the $ value of intellectual capital to the headlines - for example, over $1bn was recently awarded against Marvell Technology Group for infringing Carnegie Mellon University's patent on a technique for accurately reading data from a hard drive.

IBM has consistently taken out the most US patents for 21 straight years, both to protect the proprietary technology in its own products and to force third parties into lucrative license agreements with Big Blue. In 2013, IBM took out another patent every 15 working minutes or so on average (assuming 8 hour days and 200 working days per year) and spent of the order of $6bn in the year on research and development. All ten top US patentees are IT/high tech companies.

I wonder if any of those organizations cover the need to protect knowledge in their security awareness programs?