What is the next generation of business people? What is the next generation of their cars? Hydrogen, diesel, E85, or something else? This year’s North American International Auto Show announced an alternative propulsion vehicle for business people. Ranging from bio-fuel to fuel cell, it is clear that hybrids are still the most energy efficient technologies available today.

Many “next generation” gas-electric hybrids were unveiled. While dual-mode hybrids are efficient at stop and go traffic, they don’t quite add as much on the highways. A new concept plug-in hybrid from Saturn can potentially go for 10 miles on pure electric power, before needing to use gas.But whether its battery technology, plugging into the grid, powering vehicles from solar, nuclear, or wind, all renewable fuels come into play. Automakers say that having a diverse set of alternatives is the best way to reduce our dependence on gasoline.

When business people plan a save harbor of intellectual property (IP) they consider a wide spectrum of legal tools to maximize the protection of IP assets. The main point is that IP protection strategy should be kept from the beginning of creation, during its development until a design is complete. The strategy of securing design ownership starts with recognizing a design as a potential asset, and continues to carefully plan its protection throughout the lifetime of a design optimizing IP protection and reducing infringement risks. It may include these specific goals.

Goal 1: “Generate design research. It should be done prior to the design challenge early in the long- term planning phase and in the concept generation stage of new product development. This general research includes a state of-the-art search of patent literature (patents and published patent applications), which is analyzed by the IP counsel and shared with the development team to spark design innovation. Just as the iPod design team would have looked to Sony’s 1979 Walkman and related patents for inspiration, design development teams benefit from studying past design efforts.” The good example of such research could be list of the following questions:

What’s the core intellectual idea or invention?
How easily can it be duplicated?
How did the idea/invention come about? Was the inventor working at another company? Was she a university researcher?
How might you protect against duplication via a patent, trademark, copyright, or some other vehicle?
How visible will the invention be within your product or service?

Goal 2: “Avoid designs owned by others. Identify IP risks associated with the proposed design concepts-ideally, in the feasibility stage of new product development-so that risky design concepts can be screened out early. Once a design concept is selected for further development, a targeted search looks for patents relevant to that design concept. As needed, the IP counsel facilitates a “design around” to place the final design outside the scope of IP rights of others.”

Goal 3: “Secure IP rights. IP counsel leads the development team’s efforts to protect selected design concepts in the feasibility stage of new product development. IP protection is sought not only for the preferred design concept but also for alternative concepts that may later be preferred by the company or the company’s competitors. Before product launch, the IP counsel ensures that IP protections are in place, including foreign protection when a product will be sold or licensed overseas. And upon product launch, the IP counsel establishes procedures for monitoring the activities of competitors to police IP rights.”

Goal 4: “Enforce and expand design assets. Even after design protection has been secured, steps should be taken in the active lifecycle phase to enforce IP rights. New competitive advantages can also be sought during the active lifecycle phase in connection with design improvements.”

Goal 5: “Harvest design assets. In the decline or exit phase in which a design reaches its sunset, the IP counsel can help extract value from IP assets. Instead of allowing them to go unused, IP assets can be harvested at this final phase by licensing or selling IP assets to other companies or by using those assets as leverage to settle disputes with other companies.”

The best way to protect IP assets is to follow the simple rule of “Be aware!” In other words, it is the responsibility of business people dealing with their intellectual property to manage IP assets protection by the implementation of the effective corporate intellectual property strategy. Undoubtedly, afore mentioned 5 steps of this strategy will help to save a lot of money.

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?