Stop, Thief! A joint venture with a big company sounds like a dream--until the company backs out, takes your idea with it and leaves you in the dust.

The year 2000 started out well for Doug Augustine. His more than75-employee San Diego company, Bidland Systems, had developedsoftware for online auctions and was pursuing a joint-venture dealwith multinational telecom company Telefonica for Spanish-speakingmarkets outside the United States.

The good times ended when Bidland sued Telefonica in 2000 forbreach of contract, alleging that Telefonica promised a jointventure to access Bidland's marketing strategy andtechnology--information Telefonica then used to start its ownauction site, Katalyx.com. The case was settled in November 2004for an undisclosed amount, but Bidland didn't live to see thatday--unable to raise funds or sell the business with the lawsuit inprogress, the company ceased operations in 2001. "At least wegot our investors their money back," says Augustine, 47."[But] it's a hollow victory."

Welcome to an entrepreneur's worst nightmare: A largecompany calls, promising the moon, and you end up out of business,watching your ideas go to market without you. As intellectualproperty increasingly drives business, more companies are fightingover it: 2,978 U.S. patent suits were filed between March 2003 andMarch 2004, an increase of nearly 8 percent over the prioryear.