The following is sampling of the documents we track:

Securities Exchange Commission
All companies whose stock is publicly traded are subject to the SEC and they must submit documents periodically to the SEC. The following records are of great competitive value:

10-K The official annual report with sections required by the SEC. This covers the state of the business, all properties, legal proceedings, financial data, etc. Submitted annually.

20-F Same as the 10-K, but filed by foreign owners of companies trading on US exchanges. Submitted annually.

10-Q The required quarterly report with financial analysis and discussion. Submitted quarterly.

8-K Any unscheduled material event or corporate change of importance.

13-D Covers actions by anyone owning more than 5% of the company stock. Also used to report insider trading by the company's officers and senior management.

14D-1 Filed in the event of a tender offer by the bidder.

14D-9 Company's answer to the tender offer.

13-G Annual filing by any owners of 5% or more stock.

Dun & Bradstreet information Services
D&B provides many databases including:

• Asia-Pacific Dun's Market Identifier®
• Canadian Dun's Market Identifier®
• Dun's Electronic Business Directory
• Dun's Financial Records Plus
• Dun's Market Identifiers®
• European Dun's Market Identifier®
• International Dun's Market Identifier®

These contain complete history on the company, financial profiles, names of key managers and number of accounts, etc.

Business Credit Reports
This database covers 2,500,000 companies, both public and private. Records contain payment history, tax and legal history, UCC filings, banking relationships. How much your competitor spends on raw materials and travel expenses as well as the number of customers they have can be found here.

TRADEMARKSCAN®
Find your competitor's trademarks and service marks in 13 countries, including graphics. This includes the date of first sale and date of registration.

Company Intelligence
Combines directory data and company news in a single source, with a primary focus on privately owned company information. The directory covers 180,000 public and private US companies and 30,000 non-US companies.

Mergers and Acquisitions Filings
This database contains detailed abstracts of original and amended documents released by the US SEC to include:

• 13d (5% purchases)
• 14d-1 (tender offers)
• 14d-9 (management response to a tender)
• 13e-3 (leveraged buyouts)
• 13e-4 (issuer tender offer)

Corporate Filings from both public and private companies tell us much about a company's intentions and plans.

Real Property Ownership Records to verify the name(s) under which real property is owned and to determine its assessed value.

Corporation and Limited Partnership Records to determine the legal name and current status of a corporation or limited partnership. Get updated amendments to the articles of incorporation to stay abreast of changes in ownership, parent-subsidiary relationships etc.

Uniform Commercial Codes are searched to verify that a security interest has been perfected through a state level UCC filing. This determines if credit liens have been established and are current.

Bankruptcies, Liens & Judgments allows our clients to discover the financial status of companies through the public filings of court records and documents. Determine who holds liens on a company's property and assets. Find any judgments, both for and against the company.

Nationwide Civil Court Filings let you search any court in the U.S. for civil litigation history of a business.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration Reports -- OSHA
These reports allow you to obtain a company's history of OSHA inspections, violations, accidents, penalties, citations, hazardous substances and more. These reports also list the number of employees at the location and whether represented or not.

Federal, State, County and Local Records
We collect information on your competitor from the US Federal government agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Transportation and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, etc. through publically available records searching, or using the Freedom of information Act.

At the state and county level, we collect process construction permits for your competitor's manufacturing plants as well as air, water and solid waste permits to determine their manufacturing processes and capabilities.

At the local level, we collect Tier II reports which provide plot plans for your competitor's plant as well as details on the storage of hazardous and flammable chemicals and solvents.

Armed with this information, we help our clients determine the capabilities and intentions of their competitors.