The patent watch is an important service for companies to keep abreast of the ongoing developments in the industry and competitors. This can include a focus on a specific technology, a focus on a specific competitor, or geography. Essentially, patent watch and alert are the processes of identifying patents, news articles, and product launch information based on a pre-prescribed list of interest criteria. These can be anything from focusing on a specific type of technology to monitoring the activities of core competitors and everything in between. It can be considered analogous to the newsletter performed in marketing research. It requires periodic analysis at a predefined frequency agreed upon with the client based on the requirements and objectives of the patent watch study.