Nearly three-quarters – 74% – of chief IP counsel surveyed are in litigation against patent trolls or expect to be within a year, according to a recent study. The Consero Group’s 2013 Chief IP Counsel Survey revealed that nearly all of the respondents believe that patent litigation will increase or remain steady during that time.

“While the rise of patent trolls is a well-documented reality facing chief IP counsel worldwide, the extent of patenttroll litigation revealed by our survey was surprising,” says Paul Mandell, founder of Consero. “With chief IP counsel expecting patent litigation to remain steady or rise in the year ahead, they will likely need more resources over time.”

Moreover, 91% of those surveyed said that the United States government is not taking the necessary actions to protect corporations from patent trolls and 51% said that government protections against copyright and trademark infringement are insufficient. Although half of the lawyers surveyed said that emerging-market governments are providing more protection compared to 12 months ago, all claimed that counterfeiting enforcement is still insufficient.

“It is startling that a vast majority of the chief IP counsel gave the US government a failing grade on protection against patent trolls. It is less surprising but still troubling that they unanimously believe governments of emerging markets are not doing enough to protect against counterfeiting,” Mandell wrote. “However, there is reason for optimism since a majority says that governments of emerging markets are doing more now in this area compared to last year.”

Despite the increase of government efforts, 43% of counsel said that IP protection had become more difficult over the past year. Only 9% disagreed.

Similar to many other jurisdictions, 61% of those surveyed believed that smaller companies are unfairly disadvantaged in their patent protection efforts.

Last but not least, 94% of those surveyed believed that their company’s leadership sufficiently appreciates the importance of IP protection, but only 59% feel that their company applies sufficient resources for that purpose.

The 2013 Chief IP Counsel Survey posed 11 questions to Fortune 1000 chief IP counsel in connection with Consero’s Chief IP Counsel Forum in June 2013.