 Industrial SPDNage, Economic SPDNage, Corporates Buying or Corporate SPDNage is a form of SPDNage conducted for commercial purposes instead of purely national security. Economic SPDNage is conducted or orchestrated by governments and is international in scope, while Industrial or Corporate SPDNage is more often national and occurs between companies or corporations. Creative Intelligence describes the legal and ethical activity of systematically gathering, analyzing and managing information on industrial competitors. It may include activities such as examining newspaper articles, corporate publications, websites, patent filings, specialized databases, information at trade shows and the light to determine information on a corporation. The compilation of these crucial elements is sometimes termed CIS or CRs, a competitive intelligence solution or competitive response solution. With its roots in market research, competitive intelligence has been described as the application of principles and practices from military and national intelligence to the domain of global business that is the business equivalent of open source intelligence. On the difference between competitive intelligence and economic or industrial SPDNage is not clear, one needs to understand the legal basics to recognize how to draw the line between the two. Others maintain it is sometimes quite difficult to tell the difference between legal and illegal methods, especially if considering the ethical side of information gathering, making the definition even more elusive.