March 2009 Archives

The Patently-O blog has an article on patent cost savings that says one way to save money is to increase reliance on trade secrets. "Patent filings are dropping and many companies are taking a harder look at trade secret law as a mechanism to at least temporarily protect rights."  The blog also offers best practices for trade secret law.

http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2009/03/best-practices-for-trade-secret-protection.html

The April 2009 ABA Journal has an article on two recent Fourth Amendment cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court (Herring v. United States and Pearson v. Cal­la­han).  In Herring, the exclusionary rule is at issue, while Pearson looks at whether the police can be sued for Fourth Amendment violations.  The article says that in close cases the edge goes to law enforcement.

http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/whos_policing_the_fourth_amendment/

Sorry for the inconvenience, but the library stairs are closed this afternoon for painting.  You can use the elevator instead.

Property -- United States -- Cases.
Property stories / edited by Gerland Korngold and Andrew P. Morriss.

"Property Stories provides an enriched understanding of twelve leading property cases, focusing on how the litigation was shaped by lawyers, judges and policy factors, and why the cases have attained noteworthy status. The volume is ideally suited for adoption as a supplement in a first-year property course, or as a text for an advanced seminar." - Amazon.com

Includes the seminal cases of property law history and lore:

Van Valkenburgh v. Lutz
Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council
Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co.

Great Reading.

SCOTUSblog reports that a New Hampshire law that seeks to stop the use of Rx reports to try to persuade doctors to prescribe brand-name drugs is being challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court.  The case is being "framed as a major new test of how far the First Amendment allows government to go to regulate the gathering of data and re-packaging it for publication."  Under scrutiny is NH's "Prescription Information Law" (RSA 318:47-f), enacted in 2006 that provides criminal and civil penalties for those who distribute prescription histories for a "commercial purpose."  The case:  I.M.S. Health, Inc. v. Ayotte, 550 F.3d 42 (1st Cir. 2008).

SCOTUSblog (includes links to documents): http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/plea-for-freer-commercial-speech/

RSA 318:47-f: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/XXX/318/318-47-f.htm

The CCH Tax Research Network is a robust online product.  If you plan to go into a field that with tax law implications, it pays to learn how to use this resource.  A two-page Quick Reference Guide describes the interface.  CCH also offers this online demo.

Sometimes the fastest way to get to something is to ask someone who knows (like a librarian).  You can also call the CCH Research Specialists at 800-344-3734.

http://0-tax.cchgroup.com.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/ipnetwork

American taxpayers spend over $100 million a year to fund the Congressional Research Service (CRS), a "think tank" that provides reports to members of Congress on a variety of topics relevant to current political events. CRS, which is a department of the Library of Congress, works exclusively as a nonpartisan analytical, research, and reference arm for Congress. The CRS mission is to support an informed national legislature.  Yet, these reports are not made available to the public in a way that they can be easily obtained.  Pierce Law Library's IP Mall collects intellectual property, cyberlaw and electronic commerce publications from CRS on its website. Open CRS is a project of the Center for Democrary & Technology that provides access to CRS Reports already in the public domain.


IP Mall - CRS:  http://ipmall.info/hosted_resources/crs_reports.asp
Open CRS:  http://opencrs.com/

SCOTUSblog's "Petitions to Watch" features cases up for consideration at the U.S. Supreme Court Justices' private conference.  These will be taken up in conference on March 27.  Links to dockets and other documents are available on SCOTUSblog.

Title: Agripost, LLC, et al. v. Miami-Dade County, Florida
Issue: What is the obligation of a property owner to litigate the basis of its takings claim in state court before proceeding to federal court?

Title: Virginia v. Jaynes
Issue:  Whether a state's criminal statute prohibiting falsified sender information in email spam is facially unconstitutional for overbreadth or if a court should in its holding compare the statute's legitimate applications to unprotected commercial speech against its possible application to protected speech.

Title: Bolton v. City of Dallas
Issue: Whether a municipality is liable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for its agent's violation of a mandatory municipal policy.

http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/petitions-to-watch-32709/

Stephen Chan is soon to graduate with the Master of Science in Library Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), where he was awarded a number of honors, including the American Library Association Spectrum Scholarship, the American Association of Law Libraries George A. Strait Minority Scholarship, and the Chinese American Librarians Association Sheila Suen Lai Scholarship. He is currently an instructional technology research assistant at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, where he researches and recommends technology for faculty to enhance classroom pedagogy. While at UNC-CH, he has also worked at the Kathrine R. Everett Law Library in several capacities, including research assistant to the Deputy Director. Before pursuing graduate education in librarianship, he was a Senior Copyright Information Specialist with the Library of Congress, U.S. Copyright Office, where he handled general and specific inquiries regarding U.S. Copyright Office procedures, regulations, and copyright law, as well as conducted research and created presentations on developing issues in copyright law. Chan holds the Juris Doctor from Franklin Pierce Law Center, Certificate in Paralegal Studies from Roosevelt University, and the Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from DePaul University.

For more information, visit:

http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/news/libraries.php?title=2009_11_fellows&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Thanks to Jon Cavicchi for this content.

HeinOnline will host a webinar on Wednesday, April 15th from 2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. EST to cover the basics of using and navigating the HeinOnline interface.  Reserve your seat today by emailing marketing@wshein.com. Please include your full name, name of your institution, and the email address to which you would like us to send the webinar invitation.

http://heinonline.blogspot.com/2009/03/heinonline-is-hosting.html

If you are looking for a topic for a paper, go to U.S. Law Week and click on the link to "Circuit Splits" on the left hand side under "Key Features."  Wherever there is a split between the Courts of Appeals, there is a potential topic to examine for publication.

http://0-news.bna.com.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/lwln/

The Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal offers an analysis piece on balancing IP due diligence with the attorney-client privilege.  The authors, mainly IP litigators with Goodwin Procter, analyze the due diligence obligations and associated risks facing buyers and sellers engaged in transactions involving intellectual property.

http://0-news.bna.com.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/ptln/PTLNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=11672645&vname=ptcjnotallissues&fn=11672645&jd=a0b8c5e7k8&split=0

Four years ago a bar exam test taker, "Anonymous," kept writing after the time limit and was caught.  Anonymous passed both the Michigan and New York bar exams in July 2005, but Michigan denied admission finding Anonymous engaged in misconduct by writing past the time limit.  Anonymous renewed the Michigan application in 2008.  It is pending.  New York followed Michigan's lead and denied admission as well.  A New York appeals court decided on March 19 not to admit Anonymous pending the Michigan decision.  Links to the NY decision from the ABA Journal.

http://www.abajournal.com/news/test_taker_who_exceeded_bar_exam_time_limit_denied_law_license/

If you have ever struggled with getting citations properly formatted, you will appreciate the thousands of style formats available on Zotero.  But, to get you started using Zotero, go to the Zotero web site and invest 3 minutes, 11 seconds watching a "how to" screencast.  Or, if you prefer, a YouTube video.

Zotero: http://www.zotero.org/
Zotero Styles: http://www.zotero.org/styles
YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLi3ZhUQDhs

SCOTUSblog reports that the "Senate has voted 61-31 to confirm former Dean of Harvard Law School Elena Kagan as the first female solicitor general. She will become the 45th person to hold the office."  Links to the Roll Call vote and her confirmation hearing are also available on SCOTUSblog.

SCOTUSblog: http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/kagan-confirmed-as-solicitor-general/
US Senate Judiciary Committee Documents on Kagan:  http://judiciary.senate.gov/nominations/SolicitorGeneral-ElenaKagan.cfm

Constitutional amendments -- United States
Constitutional history -- United States

Main Stacks: KF4557 .C665 2000
Constitutional amendments, 1789 to the present / Kris E. Palmer, editor.

Information via email from BNA's United States Patents Quarterly® Highlights  for  Vol. 89, Number 11, March 16, 2009.   Highlights are published weekly,

The U.S. Supreme Court denied review in the following patent cases on March 9:

▸Apotex Corp. v. Astrazeneca AB (No. 08--867). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held (87 USPQ2d 1865) that accused pharmaceutical formulation infringes patents for inert subcoating that increases storage stability and provides sufficient gastric acid resistance to prevent active ingredient in drug designed to treat acid-related gastrointestinal disorders from degrading in stomach.

▸Muniauction Inc. v. Thomson Corp. (No. 08-847). The Federal Circuit held (87 USPQ2d 1350) that competitor did not infringe certain claims asserted by holder of patent directed to electronic methods for conducting original-issuer municipal bond auctions over electronic network, using Web browser.

▸R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. Star Scientific Inc. (No. 08-918). The Federal Circuit held (88 USPQ2d 1001) that district court clearly erred in finding that patents on tobacco curing process, aimed at lowering levels of carcinogens in cured tobacco, were unenforceable for inequitable conduct.

You can receive BNA Highlights of the USPQ via email  from BNA .  Simply go to BNA's main page and scroll down to the bottom.  On the right-hand side you will find a box like the one below with the link to "sign up for or modify e-mail preferences."

http://0-news.bna.com.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/ptln/

This from LexisNexis rep, Steve Albro:

Get the goods on your favorite teams and the tourney breakdown, without all the pop-ups and useless fluff.

Every search automatically updates each day.

•  MARCH MADNESS 101; BASIC THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE NCAAS
• Pooling Resources: Here are keys to the winning NCAA tourney bracket

THE ENTIRE FIELD  

The field is now set and the madness begins.  Keep track of all the latest news by just clicking on the team names below.  Good Luck with your brackets!

 

 

Yes, our very own Professor Field has published one of the best intellectual property articles of 2008, according to the editors of Intellectual Property Law Review, who will republish the article this year. The article is Thomas G Field, Jr., "From Custom to Law in Copyright", 49 IDEA 125 (2008).
For inquiring minds, access the article at:

http://www.piercelaw.edu/assets/pdf/idea-vol49-no1-field-jr.pdf

Louisville?  Oklahoma?  After you've finished filling out your bracket, come on down to the Library and check out the display of Sports Law books on the library desk.  Licensing, "torts and sports," sports regulation...it's all there.  Sports Law practice is a great way to combine the things you love with the skills you learn. 

On Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law you can browse by subject.  Links to 10 articles on International Humanitarian Law follow:

1.	Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo Cases, Uerpmann-Wittzack, Robert
2.	Children and Armed Conflict, Arnold, Roberta
3.	Civil Defence, Arnold, Roberta and Zimmermann, Dominik
4.	Combatants, Sassòli, Marco
5.	Cultural Heritage, Francioni, Francesco
6.	Flags of Truce, Arnold, Roberta
7.	Gender-Based Crimes, Chinkin, Christine
8.	Guantanamo, Detainees, Sassòli, Marco
9.	Hamdan Case, Miller, Russell A
10.	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Kolb, Robert

http://0-www.mpepil.com.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/

Bryan Garner has some advice for law students and newly minted lawyers for finding good legal writing.  "Law students need models. They need to see what a good executive summary looks like, with a question presented and a brief answer--not the typical question presented but one that can actually be read and understood by any intelligent reader in one reading. They need to see a statement of facts that is neither too sparse nor too detailed. They need to see how the body of the memo states the law, develops the analysis, and applies the law to the facts at hand to prove the conclusion that was stated clearly on page one."  Read more on the ABA website.

http://new.abanet.org/publishing/bookbriefsblog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=7

Yesterday, the U.S. Judicial Conference approved changes to its existing Code of Conduct for United States Judges.  The new rules take effect July 1, 2009.  Canon 2 was revised and now includes a definition of the "appearance of impropriety."  Canons 4, 5, and 6 were consolidated into a new Canon 4.  Other changes are linked from the press release.  They also asked Congress for 53 new judgeships.

SCOTUSblog:  http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/new-ethics-rules-for-judges/
Press Release:  http://www.uscourts.gov/Press_Releases/2009/0309JudicialConf.cfm

The companion patent reform bills, H.R. 1260 and S. 515, introduced into Congress March 3 differ little from last year's legislation, but some changes to provisions in the current measures could have a negative impact on the operations of the Patent and Trademark Office, according to past executives of the agency.  Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said that the new bipartisan, bicameral House and Senate bills pick up where the debate on the last bills left off in 2008.  BNA asked four former executives at the PTO for their views on the PTO-related differences between last year's patent reform initiatives and the pending S. 515 and H.R. 1260.  Issues discussed include fee diversion, examination outsourcing, re-examination and post-grant review, and AQS filings.  More on BNA's Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal at 77 PTCJ 486.

http://0-news.bna.com.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/ptln/

Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) focuses on the global fight against AIDS this month.  According to estimates by WHO and UNAIDS, 33.2 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2007. That same year, some 2.5 million people became newly infected, and 2.1 million died of AIDS, including 330 000 children. Two thirds of HIV infections are in sub-Saharan Africa.  Articles from the CIAO database:

Prevention Failure: The Ballooning Entitlement Burden of U.S. Global AIDS Treatment Spending and What to Do About It

AIDS, Access to Medicines, and the Different Roles of the Brazilian and South African Governments in Global Health Governance

Opportunity 2008: the Presidential Candidates and U.S. Policies to Fight HIV/AIDS in Africa and Worldwide

What About Women? The Failure of HIV/AIDS Initiatives to Address the Needs of African Women

The Role of Southern Actors in Global Governance: The Fight against HIV/AIDS


http://0-www.ciaonet.org.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/

Pierce Law alum and IP practitioner Charles Holoubeck has authored an article in the March 13, 2009, edition of the New Hampshire Bar News (page 12) on the Federal Circuit's decisions on the patentability of business methods.  Attorney Holoubeck describes the judicial atmosphere from the Supreme Court and the Federal Circuit at the time Bernard Bilski's patent application for a method of hedging risks in commodities trading made its way through the PTO.  He concludes the article with "Applying Bilski."  You can read more in the New Hampshire Bar News online here.

http://nhbar.org/publications/display-news-issue.asp?id=4986

It bears repeating that current students, faculty and staff can access our proprietary databases like JSTOR, CIAO, BNA Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal, IP Library, etc. from computers with Internet access anywhere.  (Proprietary databases are those we pay to subscribe to for you.  They are the ones I typically write about on this blog.)  What you need to access these resources are:

1. Your Pierce Law ID card.  You will need the barcode from the card.
   
2. The proxy URL - find these on QuickClicks. NOTE:  the proxy URL begins with 0- and has cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu before the first slash.

The first time you login you will have to give your name and the barcode from your ID card.  If you don't close your browser you can access all of our proprietary databases without re-logging in.

If you want a Firefox toolbar with a dropdown menu with links to our databases, go to http://PierceLawLibrary.OurToolbar.com and download the one I built. The image, below, shows the toolbar.  Click on the triangle next to the word Databases and links to our proprietary databases will drop down.  If the links don't work for some reason, go to QuickClicks. Also note the Blogs drop down menu links to this blog!

LLRX recently posted an article on social networking and criminal justice.  The article focuses on the wide ranging effects of these sits on the administration of justice, law enforcement investigation, prosecution and defense. Many of the novel and varied uses of social networking evidence in the field of criminal justice are offered. The resources explore basic concepts about social networking online, the use of materials found on profiling sites for investigation and their impact on criminal litigation.

http://www.llrx.com/features/criminaljustice/socialnetworking.htm

If you're taking advantage of Pierce Law's e-Law Summer Institute in Cork, Ireland this summer, be sure to come and check out our St.Patrick's Day book display at the library desk.  Not only do we have a beautifully illustrated "coffee table" Ireland book, we also have several nice guidebooks to Ireland.  Make the most of your summer experience!

On Aug. 1, 2007, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) changed the procedural rules for trademark oppositions and cancellations.  The impact of the two-year-old revision of the TTAB's procedural rules for trademark oppositions and cancellations is still being felt. Two lawyers from Merchant & Gould, Minneapolis, review the more significant changes and offer tips to the unwary trademark practitioner on BNA's Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal.  More at 77 PTCJ 506.

http://0-news.bna.com.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/ptln/

There's a new Google calendar that shows the hours the library is open and the local weather.  Feel free to bookmark this link or if you use a feed reader subscribe to this feed.

Bernie Madoff news seems to have taken the headlines from a couple of other white collar trials in the Southern District of New York.  This news from today's WSJ Law Blog:

• A trial begins today for Darin DeMizio, a former supervisor in Morgan Stanley's stock-lending business, on charges that he steered his firm's business to certain individuals in exchange for illegal kickbacks to his brother and father.
• Hedge-fund swindler Samuel Israel III may finally be allowed to plead guilty to skipping out on prison. The day he was supposed to report to prison for his 20-year sentence, Israel hit the road. He faked his suicide and took off in an RV for nearly a month before ultimately surrendering in Massachusetts.

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/03/16/new-york-white-collar-roundup-the-bernie-less-version/

Both Lexis and Westlaw will be offering training sessions this Tuesday (March 17) in the OTC (Library Classroom).  In addition, Westlaw will have a second session on Friday, March 20 also in the OTC. Contact the Lexis or Westlaw reps for more information.

LEXIS:  http://www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool/
WESTLAW:  http://lawschool.westlaw.com/

In Colorado, prospective clients who did not hire the attorney sued the attorney for negligent misrepresentation because the attorney allegedly misinformed them concerning the statute of limitations in an automobile accident case.  In its opinion, the Colorado Court of Appeals embraced the position taken in the Restatement (Third) of the Law Governing Lawyers that attorneys must use reasonable care in what they say to others when meeting in a professional setting.  The details are available on ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Responsibility.  Read more 25 Law. Man. Prof. Conduct 104...

http://0-lawyersmanual.bna.com.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/mopw2/

Lobbying -- United States.

Lobbying -- Law and legislation -- United States.

Main Stacks: JK1118 .G45 2008
Lobbying and advocacy : winning strategies, recommendations, resources, ethics and ongoing compliance for lobbyists and Washington advocates / Deanna R. Gelak.

"Lobbying and Advocacy by Deanna Gelak is a comprehensive resource manual on legislative issue advocacy. It is a one-stop resource for both beginners and longtime lobbyists." - Ned Monroe - Vice President of Political Affairs, National Restaurant Association

Is 32 years too long for a death row inmate to contemplate his death?  That was at the heart of an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court by Florida death-row inmate William Lee Thompson.  On March 9, 2009, the Supreme Court denied certiorari in Thompson v. McNeil.  Thompson has survived two last-minute stays of execution during his 32 years on death row.  The Christian Science Montor today discusses the argument between the Justices about the denial of certiorari in this case.  Thompson's argument was that a 32-year wait violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual treatment.  Links to the opinions of Justices Breyer, Stevens and Thomas are available at the SCOTUSblog link, below.

Christian Science Monitor:  http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0312/p02s01-usju.html
SCOTUSblog:  http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/todays-orders-3909/

Concerns by foreign governments and organizations about the "Buy American" provisions adopted as part of President Obama's economic stimulus package will not affect the rights currently enjoyed by WTO members to access the U.S. government procurement market according to a report in BNA's International Trade Reporter.  However, details on how the provisions would be implemented were not provided by the U.S.  Read more 26 ITR 305...

http://0-news.bna.com.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/itln/

Intellectual Property LAWCAST^® is an audio podcast legal news service for intellectual property lawyers and professionals. This service covers all areas of intellectual property, including patents, trademarks, copyright, trade secrets, right of publicity and licensing.

IP LAWCAST^® is the easiest, most convenient way for you to stay on top of developments in all areas of IP. You'd never be able to read enough newsletters to cover all of the areas that LAWCAST covers with their team of award-winning lawyer-journalists.

Simply open any browser at Pierce Law and type LAWCAST into the address bar and the site will open. You can listen on your computer or download to your listening device.

Twice a month, we podcast the news, plus a printed Outline with summaries and citations for every story. Each audio program is approximately 60 minutes of original legal reporting in concise, listenable segments (7-15 minutes each). Whether you've got a long or a short commute, a health exercise habit or just a nightly walk with your dog, you'll find LAWCAST^® a worthwhile companion!

The blog about the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has a companion site, ScotusWiki.  One feature on the ScotusWiki are tallied Supreme Court statistics.  Scotus also offers a circuit scorecard and petitions to watch.  Petitions to Watch features cases up for consideration at the Justices' private conference.

Wiki:  http://www.scotuswiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
Blog:  http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/

In District of Columbia v. Heller, a 2008 landmark Second Amendment case that protects an individual right to bear arms for self-defense in the home, U.S. Law Week editors think the decision opens a long dormant issue:  Whether and how to apply the Constitution's Bill of Rights to the states.  The reason the editors think the decision has opened this issue is that the Court in Heller left open whether the Second Amendment applies to gun control laws adopted by states because the case involved District of Columbia law.  More at 77 U.S.L.W. 1510...

http://0-news.bna.com.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/lwln/

Zotero is truly the portable research toolbox.  Zotero's beta version 1.5 allows you to sync your files so that the research you did on your laptop at school is available on your desktop at home or work.  Previously Zotero was limited to one Firefox profile on one computer at a time.  This ability to sync your library expands the capability of Zotero. If you have version 1.0 installed, then you should upgrade to 1.5 to get the sync capability.  Also, you'll need to register to create an account on Zotero, but it's free.

Zotero still automatically extracts bibliographic detail from any page online. You can still save the entire page, article or pdf in your library. Your library is still indexed for easy retrievability and you can still tag and make notes on individual records in your library. Citations are offered in thousands of formats, and Zotero can also insert them appropriately in your writing.

This 3 minute screencast made by the Zotero folks shows some of the features.  Now, we just need it to write our papers for us and then it will be perfect!

http://www.zotero.org/blog/zotero-15-beta-released-join-us-in-the-clouds/

The history of the courts in New Hampshire begins in 1776 shortly after the colony of New Hampshire adopted a temporary constitution.  The newly formed legislature abolished the court of appeals, which was made up of the governor and council, and established the "Superior Court of Judicature" as the appellate court, with four justices.  Both Westlaw and Lexis begin reporting NH cases in 1816 when Chief Justice Richardson sat on the Superior Court of Judicature.  Before Justice Richardson, Chief Justice Jeremiah Smith's records of cases were collected and reported in Smith's Reports for the years 1802-1809 and 1813-1816.  In addition, Nathaniel Adams printed a case reporter covering 1816-1819.  You can find these older case reporters on LLMC Digital, in the U.S. States Collection.

http://0-www.llmcdigital.org.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/

The Economist Intelligence Unit is a highly respected organization that produces numerous reports including its Country Commerce report for 55 countries.  Included in each report is a section on licensing and protecting intellectual property. 

For example, the 2008 Belgium report indicates that prior examination by the European Patent Office in The Hague is required for a 20-year patent.  Belgium also offers a six-year patents.  For faster processing of a 20-year patent, an applicant can pay an additional fee to receive priority. The granting of a six-year patent takes less time, since it does not require prior examination.

The Belgian Intellectual Property Office (Office de la propriété intellectuelle--OPRI) handles trademark, patent and design protection.  Patents, trademarks, industrial designs and models, and plant varieties must be formally registered to receive protection. Protection is automatic for copyrights, semiconductor topographies and know-how. Copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. Belgium also recognizes the right to payment when a work is borrowed--as from a library. 

Five years are archived for each country and the reports can be downloaded in pdf or html formats.

http://0-www.eiu.com.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/portal

Your login credentials for access to any of the proprietary, licensed databases listed on QuickClicks are on your Pierce Law ID card. Login name is your first name followed by a space and your last name. [e.g. John Smith] The other field required is the barcode from your ID card. While doing remote location research, if you keep the browser open that you used when you logged in, you won't have to repeat the login process for additional searches in other proprietary resources.

Students are issued ID cards, but faculty and staff must request one with a barcode. The login for electronic resources is NOT the same as the one you use for your email.

The web page with the form you fill out for remote access looks something like this:

A portable app is a computer program that you can load on a portable device and use on any Windows computer. When your USB flash drive, portable hard drive, iPod or other portable device is plugged in, you have access to your software and personal data just as you would on your own PC. And when you unplug the device, none of your personal data is left behind.

Zotero users who store their library onto a flash drive can install portable Firefox so that the PC they are using needn't have a Firefox browser.

http://portableapps.com/

Electronic access to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly continues to be unavailable via IP authentication.  The Library is currently in communication with the vendor to resolve the issue.  Stay tuned to this blog for an update.

Cutting and pasting when doing legal research using your browser is simple. But having to construct the BlueBook citation for what you pasted is not so simple. CiteGenie is a Firefox browser plug-in that works as a right click when you are conducting legal research on the web.  Best of all, it works with Westlaw and Lexis.  This is something that Zotero does not do for you even though both are Firefox plug-ins.

It's a free download and then you configure it for your jurisdiction.  Try it!

http://www.citegenie.com/

If you use Zotero to bookmark your research articles (and who wouldn't - it's free), HeinOnline's Law Journal Library now allows you to save your citations to Zotero.  It's HeinOnline's Tip of the Week from their blog.

Zotero s a free, easy-to-use Firefox plug-in to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. HeinOnline's blog includes a short tutorial on how to use Zotero in HeinOnline.

HeinOnline: http://0-heinonline.org.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/HOL/Welcome

Tip of the Week: 
http://heinonline.blogspot.com/2009/02/heinonlines-tip-of-week-use-zotero-with.html

There are currently 1224 titles in HeinOnline's Law Journal Library.  Add that to all of the the title changes that have occurred through the years, and you end up with 1640 different Blue Book citations one could use to find a cited work.  HeinOnline offers a Blue Book citation look-up tool to help researchers find the journal they need.  Read more about how to use this tool on HeinOnline's blog.

http://heinonline.blogspot.com/2009/02/heinonlines-tip-of-week-blue-book.html

Access to this information is available to authorized library patrons, including current students, faculty and staff.  Remote access is available with a current ID card.

Since 1926, the United States Code has been published every six years. In between editions, annual cumulative supplements are published in order to present the most current information.  The Copyright Act was enacted in 1947 and revised in 1976.  Do you know where to find the text of the Copyright Act prior to the 1976 revisions in say, 60 seconds?

You can "Find It Fast" on HeinOnline. HeinOnline's coverage of the U.S. Code is comprehensive, dating back to inception. Collection features include the ability to browse the bindings by Edition or Title and a U.S. Code Citation Search tool which allows you to enter a Title #, Section #, and select an Edition to help easily locate a specific citation.

http://0-heinonline.org.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/HOL/Index?collection=uscode

Access to this information is available to authorized library patrons, including current students, faculty and staff.  Remote access is available with a current ID card.

The Copyright Royalty Board issued four modifications on Feb. 11 to the royalty terms and rates that it recently adopted for use of musical works under the statutory license at 17 U.S.C. §115 (74 Fed. Reg. 6,832).  Read more in BNA's Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal.

http://0-news.bna.com.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/ptln/

Access to this information is available to authorized library patrons, including current students, faculty and staff.  Remote access is available with a current ID card.