When business people start a new business they do so called long-term thinking literally focusing on the kind of trends research consisted of a collection of reports and research on the sources and impacts of social and business change. The research can help to generate new business ideas. But I personally didn’t know that the research itself is a nice business. Here is my story of how I found a researching to be a great business nowadays.

Generally, business people need basic information to start and operate a business. Who are the decision-makers? What are their titles, back-grounds and responsibilities? What is an organization chart of the key people in the portion of the company their client is working with or targeting? So, the choice is to start digging up the information usually without any knowledge and skills and consequently spending a lot of time. Or, another option, a professional staff of researchers can do that quickly, precisely and without cutting off the budget.

According a Strategic Research Network, national strategic research company, researches provide Internet research services to their clients in exchange to a fee which depends on the project complexity. Researchers do something that their clients would rather not spend time doing at all. They dig up the current and accurate information that their clients absolutely must have to conduct their business. It could be the names, numbers and addresses of their potential clients. It might involve the pre-qualification of job candidates or preparation and management of e-mail tracking campaigns for employers.

Who can be a researcher and what they do? Marketing and management oriented people because they can appreciate how valuable sales and business research can be. People who enjoy being a “detective” and engaging in problem solving activities, those who are analytical and have project management skills.

Researchers use advanced Internet research services to generate custom leads that are unavailable anywhere else. They gather competitive business intelligence. They know everything about their clients or competitors so the clients can sell more products. The same approach is to the new business: there is a need of contact information for decision-makers that new companies can’t find anywhere else.

They also collect relevant industry content for marketing. It is not effective to just e-mail obvious promotional materials to the clients and prospects every time company communicates with them. Business purchasing decision-makers are too sophisticated. The researchers gather articles that are relevant to the target’s industry, sector and situation. They prioritize sales contact with e-mail tracking. What if your sales person could send an e-mail to 200 purchasing decision-makers and see in real time which ones were opening e-mails and which ones were clicking on links? What if you have their name and phone number right there too? Instead of calling 200 people who even didn’t read the message yet they can call 15 potential customers that are in their office and just have read the e-mail.

Researchers operate their own businesses, usually as home-office full or part-time, being perfect inexpensive outsource for their clients. While researchers are focusing on various types of lead generation projects their clients are concentrating on sales and recruiting activity.

According to SRN the future looks good. Demand for researchers among B2B Sales, Human Resources, Recruiters and Job Seekers remains high. That’s mostly because of the gap between what the average person can do and what trained researcher using excellent software and systems can accomplish. Whatever project company is planning this is a bad idea to let salespeople to do research themselves. Sales divisions of companies will continue to be expected to do more with less and will be looking for new ways to stimulate sales. Human Resources departments will be pressured to fill positions while reducing their recruiting costs. Job seekers- no matter how experienced they are- will always need the expertise of professionals who can put them in a position to speak with actual hiring authorities. So, isn’t it a nice business concept?

How many of Internet users read Terms of Use and Disclaimer sections on the web pages they visit? Is anybody concerned about protection of individuals and companies from the uncertainties and abuses surrounding the use of online communications methods and the use of digital content?

Protection of digital content and fair use of online communication are one of the controversial topics in e-commerce law. On the one hand, some lawyers consider drafting techniques based on statues and case law sufficiently protect users of digital content from infringement of rights of others.

This group of lawyers argues that sufficient protection is more appropriate approach because all rights of intellectual property may be enforced in a court. For this reason, users of digital content and online communication should rely on existing law and drafting techniques, and obey the rules. One the other hand, other lawyers claim that current legal tools that prevent infringement of digital content are not sufficiently developed for the proper protection.

Proponents of this approach argue that drafting techniques, statues and current case law have significant limitations with respect of relationships between owners and users of digital content including all kinds of third parties. They believe that those limitations/uncertainties encourage owners of digital content to maximize the level of protection. Because a digital content protection’s performance is evaluated on the basis of absolutely clear balance of rights and responsibilities, owners of digital content try to eliminate any uncertainties in this balance.

Current law and legal provisions to protect rights of others

There are two main forms of intellectual property used in online communication: software and websites. With regard to content of online communication, “text, music, movies, photographs, artwork, inventions, processes, product names, and confidential business information” would be also qualified for intellectual property protection, which digitized and implemented in specific online communication. All this in addition to computer software and HTML code and similar forms of code is a “website” and used in online communication.

Trade secret law, copyright law, patent law and trademark law govern protection of digital content

A trade secret is confidential information that provides competitive advantage to its owner in a market place. It can be information of production or business process, marketing or business plan, list of clients, advertising campaign plan. Such information needs to be protected from competitors and companies make their maximum effort to keep it in secret. An example of trade secret is Coca-Cola receipt or formula, to say so.

Copyright provides to the owner of product of human intellect, particularly software or website, exclusive right to control how this product is used. This control includes making copies, distributing them to the public, making derivative works, and performing the work.

A patent is a grant of “monopoly for a limited period of time on the use and development of an invention” which the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office qualify for its protection. To obtain a patent it is necessary to file an application with an explanation why the invention is original, with detailed description of the invention and its aspects, with all drawings, statements and filing fee.

A trademark is “a distinctive word, phrase, logo, graphic symbol, or other device” and uses “to identify the source of a product and to distinguish a manufacturer’s or merchant’s products from anyone else’s”.

No one is completely effective and has some limitations. Trade secret protection is limited by physical ability to keep the information from competitors. Copyright provides a protection for expression of the idea and not for idea itself. Patent has a complicated and costly procedure and doesn’t provide complete protection for disclosed information of the invention. Trademark provides all the protection which trade secret, copyright and patent don’t, but limited by its specific purpose. Therefore, digital content protection would be more effective when all of those legal tools used in combination covering their limitations.

Bottom line, intellectual property owners should implement special techniques for protection of digital content in online communications. In other words, there is a need for intellectual property plan. It’s consists primarily of using forms and procedures to identify, establish ownership, and protect the developer’s intellectual property.