Guide to Intellectual Property Resources by David Gay and Neal Axton
A patent is not a trademark is not a copyright is not a trade secret! This Guide to Intellectual Property Resources will not differentiate for you between these various forms of intellectual property protections, but will guide you to more information both here in the US and worldwide. There are major sections below for the traditional categories of intellectual property, patents and trademarks and copyright, with both print sources and links to both private and public organizations with resources related to intellectual property. Examples of law review literature in the area of intellectual property are included. This guide was done by MLIC intern Neal Axton and edited by International and Comparative Law Librarian David Gay. Please contact David Gay (email: william-gay@utulsa.edu; phone: 918-631-3545) with suggestions or comments concerning the resources listed below.
Patents and Trademarks
US Patent and Trademark Office - The US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) is the agency within the Department of Commerce charged with implementing the US patent and trademark system. Their Frequently Asked Questions or FAQ page is available here. The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has a network of Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries(USPTOPDLs) with the resources to assist inventors with conducting both a preliminary patent or novelty search and a Federal trademark search(visit it here).
An Oklahoma USPTOPDL is at OSU in Stillwater. Full-text utility, design, and plant patents with images are available back to 1790! A recent resource available from PTO is a link including all editions and all revisions (1948-2006) of the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure.
European Patent Office - The European Patent Office is a centralized patent grant agency established by the Convention on the Grant of European Patents (EPC) signed in Munich 1973. A list of the participating nations can be found here.
United Kingdom Patent Office
British Library's Patent Information. One of the world's best resources for obtaining copies of patents and other forms of intellectual property.
Eurasian Patent Organization - The Eurasian Patent Organization is composed of members of the former Soviet Union.
International Federation of Inventors Association
Patent Cafe - This is a commercial site dedicated to aspiring inventors. While the information is largely US based, there is some international coverage here.
- Chisum on patents : a treatise on the law of patentability, validity, and infringement by Donald S. Chisum, 1978 [updated regularly]. [Fourteen Volume Treatise] Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. KF3114 .C47
- McCarthy on trademarks and unfair competition by J. Thomas McCarthy, 4th ed., 1996 [updated regularly]. [Six Volume Treatise] Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. KF3180 .M334
- Patent, copyright & trademark: an intellectual property desk reference by Stephen Elias and Richard Stim, 6th ed., 2003. Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. KF2980 .E45 2003
- Patent law fundamentals by John Gladstone, et. al., 2nd ed., 2005 revision.[Five Volume treatise] Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. KF 3114 .M55 2005
- Intellectual property and unfair competition in a nutshell by Charles R. McManis, 5th ed., 2004. Location: MLIC, Reserves [Circulation Desk], Call No. KF1610 .M35 2004
- Intellectual property; patents, trademarks, and copyright in a nutshell by Arthur Miller and Michael Davis, 3rd ed., 2000. Location: MLIC Reserves [Circulation Desk], Call No. KF 2980. M52 2000
- "Federal patent and trademark law," by Harold F. See [Chapter 11] in Specialized legal research, edited by Penny Hazelton, 2004 Supplement. Location: MLIC Ready Reference, Call No. KF 240 .S69 1987.
Copyright
Copyright Information - provided by the Library of Congress.
Copyright Clearance Center - This organization provides a mechanism to properly license the right to use copyrighted materials.
Her Majesty's Stationery Office's guidelines on Crown Copyright - The government of the United Kingdom retains copyright on most government documents. This can be compared to the position taken by the United States government, which does not copyright most federal publications.
Primary Sources on Copyright, 1450 -1900 - A history of copyright (from the invention of the printing press) in Renaissanse Italy, France, German-speaking countries, Britain, and the USA.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
provides copyright laws of UNESCO member states in French, English and Spanish as PDF (portable document format) files here. Countries are organized by region. As of July 19, 2004, approximately 100 countries are listed.
- Nimmer on Copyright by Melville B. Nimmer and David Nimmer, 1978 [updated through 2000]. - [Ten Volume Treatise] [Note: Print updates discontinued in 2000; online update on LexisNexis]. [Includes 2000 supplement on the Digitial Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA)] Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. KF2988.8 .C66 2000
- Intellectual property and unfair competition in a nutshell by Charles R. McManis, 2004. Location: MLIC, Reserves [Circulation Desk], Call No. KF1610 .M35 2004
- Intellectual property; patents, trademarks, and copyright in a nutshell by Arthur Miller and Michael Davis, 3rd ed., 2000. Location: MLIC Reserves [Circulation Desk], Call No. KF 2980. M52 2000
- Copyright law reporter by Commerce Clearinghouse (CCH) Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. KF2991.5 .C62
- "Copyright law," by Joseph Beard and William H. Manz [Chapter 4] in Specialized legal research, edited by Penny Hazelton, 2004 Supplement. Location: MLIC Ready Reference, Call No. KF 240 .S69 1987
International Organizations Important to Intellectual Property Law
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) - WIPO is the administrative body or secretariat for many international treaties that define intellectual property internationally. Treaties fundamental to international law of intellectual property are found at http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/paris/index.html. Collection of Laws for Electronic Access (CLEA) is a portal to a wide range of national and regional IP legislation.
Two of the oldest agreements on international intellectual property are the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property(1883) and Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886).
World Trade Organization - The World Trade Organization (WTO) is a global organization that establishes trade rules between nations. The treaties and rules established by the WTO are referred to as the multilateral trading system.
The WTO is the successor organization to the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT).
One of the more controversial treaties implemented by the WTO is known as Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights or TRIPS
BNA provides a variety of links on TRIPS here
United Nations Intellectual Property Pathfinder - This pathfinder contains information for finding print resources disseminated by the United Nations on Intellectual Property.
United Nations Documentation Research Guide - This guide helps to understand the United Nations classification system and find its treaty resources.
United Nations Treaty Collection - This resource is primarily helpful if you already know the name of the treaty you wish to examine or if you are interested in whether treaties have been received by the UN’s Secretariat.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
provides copyright laws of UNESCO member states in French, English and Spanish as PDF (portable document format) files here. Countries are organized by region. As of July 19, 2004, approximately 100 countries are listed.
The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plant (UPOV) - UPOV is an international organization established by the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. The Convention was adopted in Paris in 1961 and it was revised as recently as 1991. The Convention protects new varieties of plants as a form of intellectual property.
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) - ICANN is an internationally organized, non-profit corporation responsibile for Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) and country code (ccTLD) Top-Level Domain name system management, and root server system management functions.
Additional Resources for International Intellectual Property
American Society of International Law(ASIL) Guide to Intellectual Property - ASIL is a non-profit organization founded in 1906 to encourage the study and use of international law. ASIL has been granted consultative status (Category II) to the United Nations. Jonathon Franklin last updated the IP Guide for ASIL in December, 2004.
Electronic Information System about Law (EISIL) - EISIL is maintained by the American Society of International Law (ASIL), a scholarly association to encourage the analysis, dissemination and development of international law. ASIL’s goal is to ensure, through EISIL, that web searchers can easily locate the high quality primary materials, authoritative web sites and helpful research guides to international law on the Internet.
EISIL links specific to Intellectual Property
Foreign Trade Information System's Intellectual Property Rights Page - The Foreign Trade Information System is the information technology arm of the Organization of American States (OAS). The site provides national intellectual property laws for countries in the Western Hemisphere as possible in the four official languages of the OAS (English, Spanish, Portuguese and French).
(The Foreign Trade Information System is also known as SICE, which is its Spanish acronym, short for Sistema de Información al Comercio Exterior)
BNA's Intellectual Property Links.
BNA provides a variety of resources of United States and international intellectual property
Bitlaw - Bitlaw is an Internet resource on technology law, containing over 1,800 pages on patent, copyright, trademark, and Internet legal issues. BitLaw was created by Daniel A. Tysver, a partner with the intellectual property law firm of Beck & Tysver.
LLRX - LLRX is a Web journal providing information on a wide range of Internet research and technology-related issues, applications, resources and tools, since 1996.
Office of the United States Trade Representative. The Office of the United States Trade Representative website has an IP site that includes monitoring reports for major IP agreements for which the U. S. is party. This includes an annual report identified as the Section 301 Report (2005 Section 301 Report )that addresses piracy and related trade problems with U. S. trading partners.
"Researching US treaties by Marci Hoffman - This site was last updated on May 15, 2001 and is therefore slightly dated. However, it provides a broad overview of many available resources on international law.
Researching non-US treaties by Stefanie Weigmann - While slightly dated, this document provides useful information on researching treaties. Jill McC. Watson has recently revised (December, 2004) the Researching Treaties Guide on ASIL's web page. Watson's guide covers researching both US and non-US treaties.
Update to Researching Intellectual Property Law in an International Context by Stefanie Weigmann - A useful source of background information and resources.
International Law Guides from LLRX - A compliation of links and pathfinders on a vareity of international issues.
International Federation of Inventors Association
Patent Cafe - This is a commercial site dedicated to aspiring inventors. While the information is largely US based, there is some international coverage here.
- Legal research for the 21st century: advanced research Intellectual property law by Robert Berring, 2001. Location: MLIC Reserve K 85 .B4 2001 Tape 3.
Resources for Special Categories of IP Research: Plant Patents, Certificates of Plant Variety Protection, and Bioengineering or Nanotechnology
The US Patent and Trademark Office issues utility and design patents in the traditional chemical, mechanical, and electrical arts but also issues plant patents. Basic information from the US Patent and Trademark Office regarding rights for new varieties of plants (those reproduced asexually). Another form of intellectual property protection for plants is available from the USDA in the form of a Certificate of Plant Variety Protection. This program is administered by the USDA Plant Variety Protection Office-check it out.
The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants(UPOV) - UPOV is an international organization established by the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. The Convention was adopted in Paris in 1961 and it was revised as recently as 1991. The Convention protects new varieties of plants as a form of intellectual property.
European Nanotechnology Information hosted by the European Union's Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS). This site contains information on the legal implications of nanotechnology from a European perspective.
Additional Non-US IP Law; Country and Region Specific Links
Global List of Countries - This list of international and national intellectual property agencies is provided by the United Kingdom Patent Office
This list of international and national intellectual property agencies is provided by the Chinese Intellectual Property Office
Asia
China
State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China. - This agency is responsible for the enforcement of intellectual property laws within China. It was created in 1980 after China agreed to the conventions establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
Australia
A useful resource for researching intellectual property laws in Australia.
European Union
Intellectual Property Rights Helpdesk - A site designed to aid inventors and contractors in the European Union to comply with international intellectual property law. Their Frequently Asked Questions Page
contains useful background information for users.
European Patent Office - The European Patent Office is a centralized patent grant agency established by the Convention on the Grant of European Patents (EPC) signed in Munich 1973. A list of the participating nations can be found here.
Eurasia and the former Soviet Union
Eurasian Patent Organization - The Eurasian Patent Organization enforces patent and trademark issues for members of the former Soviet Union. Member states include: the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Kazakstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, and Belarus. All current member states.
The Russian Agency for Patents and Trademarks - The Russian Patent Agency's site is only available in Russian
Journals and Selected Articles
Intellectual Property Law Reviews
The European Commission IPR helpdesk has collected a list of Intellectual Property law reviews in English here
- BNA's patent, trademark & copyright journal (Weekly) Physical Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. KF3110 .B52
- Harvard Journal of Law & Technology Physical Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. K8 .A542
Selected Articles
American Patent Policy, Biotechnology, and African Agriculture: the Case for Policy Change. Michael R. Taylor and Jerry Crayford, Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, Spring 2004, Volume 17, No. 2, pages 321-407. Link Physical Location: MLIC, Circulation Desk Reserves, Call No. K8 .A542
Adverse Possession for Intellectual Property: Adapting an Ancient Concept to Resolve Conflicts Between Antitrust and Intellectual Property Laws in the Information Age. Constance E. Bagley and Gavin Clarkson, Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, Spring 2003, v. 16 no. 2, p 327-94. Link Physical Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. K8 .A542
Indirect Liability for Copyright Infringement: An Economic Perspective. Douglas Lichtman and William Landes, Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, Spring 2003, v. 16 no. 2, p 3395-410. Link Physical Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. K8 .A542
Fair use infrastructure for rights management systems. Dan L. Burk; Julie E. Cohen, Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, Fall 2001 v15 no. 1, p 41-83. Link Physical Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. K8 .A542
Avoiding Suboptimal Behavior in Intellectual Asset Transactions: Economic and Organizational Perspectives on the Sale of Knowledge, [Student Note] Link, Gavin Clarkson, Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, Spring 2001, v. 14 no. 2, p 267-314. Physical Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. K8 .A542
The Legal Status of the DOHA Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health Under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. James Thuo Gathii, Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, Spring 2002, v. 15 no. 2, p 291-318. Link Physical Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. K8 .A542
Patent Nonuse and the Role of Public Interest as a Deterrent to Technology Suppression. Kurt M. Saunders, Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, Spring 2002, v. 15 no. 2, p 389-452. Link Physical Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. K8 .A542
The Merits of Ownership; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Intellectual Property: Review Essay of Lawrence Lessig, The Future of Ideas, and Siva Vaidhyanathan, Copyrights and Copywrongs. Shubha Ghosh, Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, Spring 2002, v. 15 no. 2, p 453-96. Link Physical Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. K8 .A542
Using the Written Description and Enablement Requirements to Limit Biotechnology Patents. Alison E. Cantor, Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, Fall 2000, v. 14 no. 1, p 712-51. Link Physical Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. K8 .A542
International Intellectual Property Rights. Bruce Horowitz, Melvyn J. Simburg, and David W. Maher, International Lawyer, Summer 2003, Volume 37, No. 2, p 473-77. Physical Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. K9 .N7445
Selected Treatises
Below are a selection of noted works on Intellectual Property held by the University of Tulsa. Many are included above in the traditional IP catergories.
- Chisum on patents : a treatise on the law of patentability, validity, and infringement by Donald S. Chisum, 1978 [updated regularly]. [Fourteen Volume Treatise] Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. KF3114 .C47
- Copyright law reporter by Commerce Clearinghouse (CCH) Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. KF2991.5 .C62
- Ekstrom's licensing in foreign and domestic operations by David M. Epstein, 5th ed., 2005. [Four Volume Treatise] Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. KF 3147 .A6 E24 [Note: The fifth volume of this five volume treatise is due for completion soon. This new edition by Epstein, began after Eckstrom's death, covers licensing issues for all forms of intellectual property both here in the U.S. and internationally.]
- Intellectual property and unfair competition in a nutshell by Charles R. McManis, 2004. Location: MLIC, Reserves [Circulation Desk], Call No. KF1610 .M35 2004
- Intellectual property; patents, trademarks, and copyright in a nutshell by Arthur Miller and Michael Davis, 3rd ed., 2000. Location: MLIC Reserves [Circulation Desk], Call No. KF 2980. M52 2000
- McCarthy on trademarks and unfair competition by J. Thomas McCarthy, 1996 [updated regularly]. [Six Volume Treatise] Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. KF3180 .M334
- Milgrim on trade secrets by Roger M. Milgrim, 1967 [updated through 2001]. [Four Volume Treatise] [Must be updated online through LexisNexis]. Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. KF 3197 .A6 M5
- Nimmer on copyright by Melville B. Nimmer and David Nimmer, 1978 [updated through 2000]. [Ten Volume Treatise] [Note: Updates discontinued in 2000; update online through LexisNexis] [Includes 2000 supplement on the Digitial Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA)] Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. KF2988.8 .C66 2000
- Patent, copyright & trademark; an intellectual property desk reference by Stephen Elias and Richard Stim, 6th ed., 2003. [Note: This Nolo Press publication is one of several "self help" publications designed for the non-lawyers and listed on the Intellectual Property section of Carol Arnold's Self-Help Legal Materials pathfinder.] Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. KF2980 .E45 2003
- Patent law fundamentals by John Gladstone, et. al., 2nd ed., 2005 revision.[Five Volume treatise] Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. KF 3114 .M55 2005
- The Ontology of cyberspace: law, philosophy, and the future of intellectual property, by David R. Koepsell, 2000. Location: McFarlin Library, First Floor, Call No. K1401 .K64 2000
- The Economics of intellectual property, edited by Ruth Towse and Rudi Holzhauer, 2002. [Four Volume Treatise] Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. K1401 .E27 2002
- Basics of international intellectual property law by G. Gregory Letterman, 2001. Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No.K1401 .L48 2001
- Computer software and information licensing in emerging markets : the need for a viable legal framework by Aunya Sinsangob, 2003. Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No.K1443.C6 S56 2003
- Information feudalism: who owns the knowledge economy? by Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite, 2003.
Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. K1401 .D728 2003
- Intellectual property, biodiversity and sustainable development : resolving the difficult issues by Martin Khor, 2002. Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. K1401 .K49 2002
- Intellectual property rights and United States international trade laws by Wayne W. Herrington; George W. Thompson, 2002. Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. KF2979 .H47 2002
- The TRIPS regime of patent rights by Nuno Pires de Carvalho, 2002. Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. K1505 .C37 2002
- International trademarks and copyrights : enforcement and management edited by John T. Masterson, Jr., 2004. Location: MLIC, First Floor, Call No. K1420.5 .I58 2004
- Specialized legal research by Penny Hazelton, editor, 2004 Supplement. Location: MLIC Ready Reference, Call No. KF 240 .S69 1987. [As noted above, includes chapters on both Federal patent and trademark law and on Copyright law].
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Subject Searching Using the Online Catalog
To search Innopac, the online catalog, follow this link and then select one of the following subject headings depending upon your research interest.
--Intellectual property
--Intellectual property United States
--Intellectual property (International Law)
--Patents
--Patents United States
--Patents (International Law)
--Trademarks
--Trademarks United States
--Trademarks (International Law)
--Copyright
--Copyright United States
--Copyright (International Law)
--Trade Secrets
--Trade Secrets United States
The catalog will then display a list of the catalog's subject headings on the left. The number of documents in that subject heading will be displayed on the right. Click on the subject heading to begin reviewing those titles.
If you are not finding what you want, you may also try a "key word" search. For example, you may be looking for licensing of intellectual property. Try combining the terms "licensing" and "intellectual property," this may lead you to additional sources closer to your topic.
When you click on any given title, it will show you the location information for that title as well as the subject headings given to that title by the library.
All of these subject headings are hyperlinks, and clicking on any one of them will lead you to that subject heading in the online catalog.
Current Awareness
As an example of a current awareness service for legal periodical literature, below are the SmartCLIP results for an "intellectual property" profile from the University of Washington's Gallagher Law Library. Included for recipients of this service are live links to full text of the articles from Westlaw and LexisNexis.
Abbott, Frederick M. and Jerome H. Reichman. The Doha Round's public health legacy: strategies for the production and diffusion of patented medicines under the amended TRIPS provisions. 10 J. Int'l Econ. L. 921-987 (2007).
Conley, Christopher B. Comment. Parallel imports: the tired debate of the exhaustion of intellectual property rights and why the WTO should harmonize the haphazard laws of the international community. 16 Tul. J. Int'l & Comp. L. 189-211 (2007).
Guzik, Beata. Student article. Botswana's success in balancing the economics of HIV/AIDS with TRIPS obligations and human rights. 4 Loy. U. Chi. Int'l L. Rev. 255-271 (2007).
Kim, Eugene C. Note. YouTube: testing the safe harbors of digital copyright law. 17 S. Cal. Interdisc. L.J. 139-171 (2007).
King, Robert. Comment. Only in America: tax patents and the new sale of indulgences. 60 Tax Law. 761-779 (2007).
Li, Wenjie. Student piece. Standing to sue in another's shoes: can an assignee of an accrued copyright infringement claim with no other interest in the copyright itself sue for the infringement? 28 Pace L. Rev. 73-99 (2007).
Mellow, Amy R. Note. .And the ruling on the field is fair: a fair use analysis of uploading NFL videos onto YouTube and why the NFL should license its material to the website. 17 S. Cal. Interdisc. L.J. 173-201 (2007).
Casey Duncan provides a great current awareness service specifically for copyright literature from the University of Texas, Tarleton Law Library.
The University of Texas, Tarleton Law Library, in February, 2008, has added both a Patent current awareness service and a Trademark current awareness service modeled on their copyright service. Texas provides article citations including the pdf of the first page of the article for 60 days. Thanks to Jane O'Connell!
Tutorials and Educational Sites
CALI tutorials on Intellectual Property - Currently, there are forty (40) CALI lessons covering all aspects of intellectual property. Law students, faculty, or staff of the University of Tulsa may access these CALI Lessons by contacting the reference desk at extension 2460 for more information or emailing David Gay at william-gay@utulsa.edu.
