What these sources offer
To understand the strengths and weaknesses of your idea, it will be helpful to learn about competitor firms and their products.
Use company directories to create lists of competitors by industry, product line, etc.
Search news archives for competitive information.
Review patents to learn about features of competitors' products.
Related sources
Finding Market Share or Market Size
MIT Libraries guide to companies research
Company Directories
- CorpTech Directory 95,000 U.S. companies in 3,000 high tech product categories.
- GlobalSpec.com Locates products & suppliers specializing in technical, scientific, & industrial markets. 20 general product areas, with the option to search by spec
- Hoover's Online 18 million public and private U.S. and international companies.
- Orbis 53 million public & private US & international companies. Includes annual reports & 10Ks.
- ReferenceUSA 14 million U.S. businesses.
- Thomas Register of American Manufacturers Listing of manufactures in the U.S. & Canada. Includes links to product catalogs.
News Archives
- ABI/Inform Dateline Articles from city, state, and regional business news sources.
- Business & Industry (RDS) Articles from trade and industry association publications.
- Factiva Articles from U.S. and international news sources. (5 simultaneous users)
- LexisNexis Academic Articles from business magazines & general news sources.
Patents
- esp@cenet: Europe's Network of Patent Databases Patent & patent application information from many countries.
- Free Patents Online Privately run, free (for now) database of U.S. patents (1976 to date) and European patents (2002 to date).
- U.S. Patent & Trademark Office Database Full text & images of all U.S. patents. Updated weekly.
- Patents at MIT MIT librarians' guide to patent research. Includes video tutorial.
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