Walking the line of competitive intelligence

A big part of running a business is gathering competitive intelligence on what other companies in your industry are doing, but at what point does competitive intelligence become economic espionage..  Competitive intelligence doesn't have to be information that is secret, there is a lot of information that is available to the public that no one is paying attention to. Once you have determined that the competitive intelligence you are gathering is material, the part that makes it legal is whether the information is public or non public. (blog) Kelly Klatt, "Walking the line of competitive intelligence," July 25, 2010

http://www.c4ssi.com/news/competitive-intelligence