The aim of this paper is to analyse the five fundamental alternatives within reach of the innovator for achieving a better appropriation of the results of technological activity. These are patents, industrial secret, cost and time for imitation, continuous innovation and complementary resources. We seek to contrast which factors determine the firm's choice of one method or another. By applying a model and different working hypotheses to a sample of 152 Spanish innovative firms, we establish how and to what degree the Spanish firms protect their technology and which resources and innovative characteristics determine the firm's choice of method of appropriation of innovative results.