34 that can provide a full service. The upside of this situation is that the firms that were successful in developing a high-level IP practice for decades have the ability to assist their clients in the most challenging situations, pretty much throughout the globe. The downside, of course, is that the choice of firms at that level is extremely limited and, because of conflicts of interest, industries and individuals seeking legal assistance often have to make do with firms only capable of providing more limited services. This situation is inherent to a market that, on the one hand, is small, and on the other hand has a frenetic activity where the development of intellectual property is concerned. It also played a role in molding how Israeli enterprises think and operate. A small company with big ideas and a small market has no choice but to look at the rest of the world to develop its market, and hundreds of such enterprises are created every year. Becoming family An interesting result of the environment inwhich IP practitioners operate in Israel is that often what develops is much more than an attorneyclient relationship. It starts with one or two entrepreneurs seeking legal advice to establish a company and safeguard their intellectual property; soon the project takes off, the number of employees skyrockets, and so does the need for legal assistance. Sometimes a patent attorney must spend a significant part of his time assisting this one company, which is not large enough to hire an inside counsel, but nevertheless needs continued assistance, particularly when its activity expands to other countries. This often leads to the development of a relationship that feels more like family than a business. Israel has also invested in the development of incubators from which interesting and often groundbreakingprojects are born.There are several ways in which these incubators are fostered, both via government investments and by private enterprises. This review would not be complete, however, without a somber view of the current situation. The dramatic problems that plague the rest of the world, such as the supply chain and the various related and unrelated problems, reached Israel too. The slowing down of the R&D activity is already felt and is expected to worsen. Israel is affected by what happens abroad, particularly in the US and Europe, and therefore cannot be expected to remain immune from the damaging effects of international events. However, there are two sides to the fact that Israel is a small country: on the one hand, it cannot influence major economic developments that affect Europe or America; on the flip side, however,
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