Copyright, Intellectual Property and Patents


 Guide created by Felicity Walsh

Hardcopy materials available at MacMillan (and elsewhere on campus)


Books

LC Classified Treaties available on the 4th floor of MacMillian (as well as at Woodruff on the 6th floor):

Copyright KF2986 - KF3086

Intellectual Property KF2971 - KF3192

Patents KF3096-KF3198

Periodicals, Electronic Resources, Government Documents

Woodruff classifies periodicals in with books, so periodicals dealing with these topics will be found on the 6th floor of Woodruff, at the same call numbers listed above.

MacMillan Law Library periodicals are all on the third floor, arranged in alphabetical order by title, so find all the periodicals on a topic requires using EUCLID. 

EXAMPLE SEARCH:   To find all periodicals which touch on copyright (this will include electronic serials and serials published by the government as well);

  1. Choose the "Complex Search" tab from the main EUCLID screen (upper right-hand corner).  
  2. From the first set of drop-down option boxes, select "subject" then type your search term, "copyright"   in this case.
  3. From the second set of drop-down option boxes, select "library" then select  "LAW".
  4. Also from the second set of drop-down boxes, select "format" then select "JOURNALS & MAGAZINES".
  5. Click the "Search Catalog" button in the center of the two sets of option boxes.

At step four, you can obviously search for other formats, just BOOKS or just COMPUTER FILES.

If the term you enter for your subject does not give you the expected results, you can try it as a keyword search instead, or try new terms either as a subject or keyword search.

 

Using LexisNexis and WestLaw


The two biggest resources available are LexisNexis and WestLaw.  Both offer multiple ways to find information.

In LexisNexis, you can:

  • Search by source and from there browse by topic for copyright law or patents or you can,
  • Look for a source this allows you to view all the databases alphabetically (be warned, there are over 20,000 databases) and find the database name and description or you can,
  • Search by topic or headnote and either
    • enter specific search terms (for example "digital millennium copyright act")  or
    • browse the topics and select sources from there (in this case, DMCA is listed as a separate topic as well, so you could find it either way).

In WestLaw, you can:

  • Browse the directories, this will break out databases into their topical areas (medical litigation, bankruptcy, tax, etc.) and into types of use the databases are designed for (current awareness and news, directories, etc.) or you can,
  • Search the Westlaw Directory by keyword or term.  You will notice that you can search by "copyright", "patents", "intellectual property" and there is some overlap, but it's worth brainstorming search terms for your research.  While COPYRIGHT and MODLICENLAW are pretty obvious choices, there are other databases such as IPCOMMERCE (Intellectual Property in Commerce) or TECHLIC (Multimedia and Technology Licensing Agreements) which may meet your needs better if you have a narrow topic.



Licensed electronic resources


There are a number of resources available via Law Library subscriptions - in order to access these, you will need to be within the library's I.P. range, or if coming from off-campus, you will need to be using the proxy server which will require your netID and password (contact Emory IT help desk at 404-727-7777 if you do not know your netID and password).

Cornell University's Legal Information Institute (Intellectual Property) Contains articles on copyright related topics, this is part of Wex, an attempt to create a collaboratively-created, public-access law dictionary and encyclopedia. Somewhat like Wikipedia, but originates with Cornell's highly regarded Law School.

Media Law Case Alert (BNA) Published weekly by the Bureau of National Affairs, this database focuses exclusively on federal and state media law. Users may search by specific terms, or browse an entire listing of available issues by date. Each entry has title keywords and a brief summary with a link to .PDF's of cases. Coverage is from May 2003 to February of 2007.

As of February of 2007, these alerts were folded into:

Media Law Reporter (BNA) A weekly reporting service on significant opinions handed down by federal and state courts at all levels. Users can search by case name or citation, search or browse the MLR's classification numbers (this allows the user to narrow the scope of cases browsed to "REGULATION OF MEDIA CONTENT- Obscenity",  "NEWSGATHERING - Press accreditation", or "MEDIA OWNERSHIP - Labor issues", for example), or view updates and most recent cases. Coverage begins with 1977.

Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal (BNA) A weekly (with a few exceptions) reporting service which allows users to search by topic, or by individual cases. Detailed index allow complete breakdowns, both by topic and by date, which give users cases summaries as well as links to full-text PDF files. Coverage is from February 15, 1996 until present.  

Patent, Trademark & Copyright Law Daily (BNA) Published daily, PT&CLD allows users to browse by topic, or by individual cases and users can read articles (some links to PDFs). Topics include (but are not limited to) public performance, gene patenting, generic drugs, computer software protection, biotechnology patents, fair use and trademark actual use requirements. Coverage from January 2, 2001 until present.

Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS) Indexes books, periodicals and selected local, state, national, and international government documents in the areas of public policy, social policy and the social sciences. Covers a wide variety of topics, and is a good place to start for fringe topics (fashion law, etc.). Coverage from 1915 to present. 

United States Patents Quarterly/Intellectual Property Library (BNA) Provides the full text of all decisions reported in United States Patents Quarterly (1st Series 1929 - 1986, 2nd Series 1986-present). Decisions are intellectual property cases, including those decided by the:

  • U.S. Supreme Court
  • U.S. Courts of Appeals, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and its predecessor, the U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals
  • U.S. Claims Court and its predecessor, the U.S. Court of Claim
  • U.S. District Courts
  • Commissioner of Patents and of Patents and Trademarks
  • U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark Trial and Appeal Board
  • U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences
  • U.S. Tax Court
  • State courts
  • Various special courts

World Communications Regulation Report (BNA) Published monthly, WCRR provides details of international regulation of communication technologies (land-line phone, mobile, handhelds, or desktop computer) giving an insight into the latest legal developments relating to issues such as electronic signatures, data privacy, Internet governance, domain names, technological protection measures to prevent copying or file sharing, broadcasting – plus related legal issues such as Antitrust and law enforcement measures including wiretapping. Coverage is from January 2006 to present.

World Intellectual Property Report (BNA) Published monthly, WIPR provides monthly news and analysis of developments in the regulation and enforcement of intellectual property rights worldwide. Major topics include: appellations of origin, computer software, data privacy, global information network, industrial designs, information infrastructure, patents, trademarks and unfair competition. Coverage from January of 1997 to present.

 

Blogs and strategies for keeping current


Copyright and IP law are constantly changing, so keeping up to date is important.  It's always a good idea to go back and re-consult your sources if you haven't read them in a while to see if things have changed.

One way to keep current is to sign up for alerts - both Lexis-Nexis and WestLaw provide alert services which you can set up to notify you of new information on topics of particular interest.

Blogs are another resource for keeping up with what may be going on, but most blogs aren't fact-checked, so it's a good idea to use them for notification rather than hard data.  Oftentimes someone's blog will show you a source of news you may not have been aware of.  And there's a blog on almost every topic under the sun.  Here are some examples of what you can find.

Just starting your research and don't know the terminology?

News aggregators like Bloglines (there are many others, you can pick one that works best for you) can track blogs on topics of interest, but they can also monitor news sources for key search terms you are interested in on Google, Yahoo, or other portals - anything with an RSS feed.  Simply go to news section of your preferred portal or search engine and enter your search (["gene therapy" patent] for example) then click the link for the RSS feed.

 

Resources on the web


Useful websites:

Don't reinvent the wheel!  This will include some repetition, but these schools have great pages to get started with:

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