Competitive technical intelligence, technology scouting, and patent analytics are overlapping activities that provide unique but not always useful information. Fundamentally, those investing in technologies need to understand what competitors are doing and how it might affect them. These activities help decision makers by creating awareness, reducing blindside risk, providing options, and stimulating innovative thinking. They involve telling the technology story to understand a competitor's activities and provide actionable intelligence that provides a competitive advantage. Competitive technical intelligence represents an organized approach to anticipate competitors' intentions and progress to gain insights for technology sourcing, diversification, strategy, and innovation. It focuses on technical topics but requires human analysis and judgment.