Building IP Portfolios Based On Competitive Intelligence:

One way to develop an intellectual property portfolio is to use up-to-date and accurate competitive intelligence on industry competitors as a map to lay out your company’s intellectual property procurement and enforcement strategies.

Competitive intelligence is an ongoing initiative to discover, analyze and use intelligence on competitors’ intellectual property, sales, marketing, regulatory filings and other publicly available information to become more competitive in the marketplace.

Compiling competitive intelligence is an ongoing process. Using modern technology as well as more traditional methods, it is less difficult than ever before to keep tabs on industry players.

The Internet is a key source to use to identify intellectual property (both published and issued patents for example), learn about marketing strategies on company websites, and look up publicly available information about products submitted for regulatory approval. There are also subscription services that deliver information. For example, services exist that tabulate marketing and sales data for specific industries. It is also possible to obtain information through common sources, i.e., vendors, manufacturers and distributors that work with multiple competitors. Lastly, it is possible to collect valuable information at industry trade shows and conferences.