Intangible assets facilitate successful international growth and, likewise, new value can be created through internationalization as it supports creating and utilizing such assets. Independent of whether the innovative creations are input or output, in order to preserve the benefits, awareness of the threat of imitation is needed. Departing from prior studies concentrating on patenting and copy-prevention, or taking the relationship between intellectual property right (IPR) protection and internationalization as given premises, this study addresses the features and effects of IPRs in internationalization from a more strategic perspective. Analysis of data from 299 companies provides empirical evidence.