Let’s assume that you’ve made the strategic decision to break into the vast government market.  What you may not realize is that once you’ve done so, you will have created some new intellectual property (IP) in your company.  And if you decide to set yourself up with a designated government status—small business, woman-owned, minority-owned, etc.—that can be viewed as a type of IP, too.  There are a number of places on the operational level where the analogy between capturing traditional IP rights and capturing government status tracks almost perfectly.  If you’ve taken the IP rights effort seriously and done it diligently, the government status endeavor will seem familiar.