For the empirical testing, a large-scale survey of patenting companies in Germany - complemented with information from patent and company databases - is employed. The results show that only a very small percentage (7.4 % ) of firms in the sample stress the importance of formal appropriation methods while at the same time evaluating informal appropriation methods as being of low importance. Especially internationalized firms, which file significantly more patents than their counterparts, seem to use patents rather for strategic purposes than as a mechanism to protect their inventions from being imitated. Patents could therefore be seen as a basic requirement to enter foreign markets, with a need to defend market positions by strategic patenting.