Patent, Copyright & Trademark: An Intellectual Property Desk Reference (Patent, Copyright and Trademark)

Rating:
Summary: Useful Overview of Major Areas of Intellectual Property Law
Review: Having worked in the field of intellectual property for over 30 years and as an attorney, I was interested to see what other attorneys would decide to put into a desk reference on the subject. I was pleasantly surprised.

Most business people I meet have a minimal understanding of intellectual property law. As a result, they make fundamental errors that could be easily avoided with a simple foundation in the law. But I didn't know of any place where they could get such a foundation until I read this excellent reference guide.

Many law students would probably also like to have a simple reference to give them a background in the subject before they start taking courses in the subject. Most attorneys also do not have any law school training in the subject, and they will also benefit from using this reference.

I was particularly impressed that the cost was modest for a legal reference.

The basic subjects are trade secrets, copyright, patent and trademark law. In all but patent law, a lay person can make many of the right moves in establishing rights without too much legal help. Patent law requires legal guidance in most areas, but a lay person can also avoid mistakes by understanding some of the common pitfalls that people fall into.

I was particularly pleased to see that trade secrets were covered well. Most business people do not realize that trade secret protection is often superior to that of copyrights, patents and trademarks. But you have to follow the rules, or your trade secret isn't going to be considered one. I only find about one business person in a hundred who is familiar with these rules.

Most people will also improve their copyright protection by following this guide.

In patents, it's very important to document what you've been doing, and I found those references to be very well done.

As to trademarks, most people misunderstand what can be trademarked and this book clears that point up quite well.

So think of this book as more than a self-help guide and less than a legal horn book. Naturally, the intricacies of appellate cases aren't fully exposed, but there's enough here to raise fundamental issues in your mind. In each area, you will see sample forms and documents along with directions for how to obtain and file them.

Nolo also offers an on-line reference that updates the material in this book, so you don't have to take out an extra subscription like most legal sources require.

In doing your legal planning, be sure to look at the guide on pages 9-11 to see what forms of intellectual property protection may be available to you. That guide is worth the price of the book alone.

I was also impressed by the extensive definitions in each subject area. Be sure to read through them all. Without a legal background, you won?t know what you don?t know unless you check these out. Naturally, the primary statutes are also included, for those who do not know how to look them up.

People who are new to these subjects will also benefit from the many references to other sources, including on-line databases.

I would advise anyone who tries to differentiate themselves through intellectual endeavors to use this guide to become familiar with the basics of the law.

After you finish reviewing this book, I suggest that you spend the time to think through how you can strengthen you legal protection of your most valuable forms of intellectual property.

Rating:
Summary: Useful Overview of Major Areas of Intellectual Property Law
Review: Having worked in the field of intellectual property for over 30 years and as an attorney, I was interested to see what other attorneys would decide to put into a desk reference on the subject. I was pleasantly surprised.

Most business people I meet have a minimal understanding of intellectual property law. As a result, they make fundamental errors that could be easily avoided with a simple foundation in the law. But I didn't know of any place where they could get such a foundation until I read this excellent reference guide.

Many law students would probably also like to have a simple reference to give them a background in the subject before they start taking courses in the subject. Most attorneys also do not have any law school training in the subject, and they will also benefit from using this reference.

I was particularly impressed that the cost was modest for a legal reference.

The basic subjects are trade secrets, copyright, patent and trademark law. In all but patent law, a lay person can make many of the right moves in establishing rights without too much legal help. Patent law requires legal guidance in most areas, but a lay person can also avoid mistakes by understanding some of the common pitfalls that people fall into.

I was particularly pleased to see that trade secrets were covered well. Most business people do not realize that trade secret protection is often superior to that of copyrights, patents and trademarks. But you have to follow the rules, or your trade secret isn't going to be considered one. I only find about one business person in a hundred who is familiar with these rules.

Most people will also improve their copyright protection by following this guide.

In patents, it's very important to document what you've been doing, and I found those references to be very well done.

As to trademarks, most people misunderstand what can be trademarked and this book clears that point up quite well.

So think of this book as more than a self-help guide and less than a legal horn book. Naturally, the intricacies of appellate cases aren't fully exposed, but there's enough here to raise fundamental issues in your mind. In each area, you will see sample forms and documents along with directions for how to obtain and file them.

Nolo also offers an on-line reference that updates the material in this book, so you don't have to take out an extra subscription like most legal sources require.

In doing your legal planning, be sure to look at the guide on pages 9-11 to see what forms of intellectual property protection may be available to you. That guide is worth the price of the book alone.

I was also impressed by the extensive definitions in each subject area. Be sure to read through them all. Without a legal background, you won?t know what you don?t know unless you check these out. Naturally, the primary statutes are also included, for those who do not know how to look them up.

People who are new to these subjects will also benefit from the many references to other sources, including on-line databases.

I would advise anyone who tries to differentiate themselves through intellectual endeavors to use this guide to become familiar with the basics of the law.

After you finish reviewing this book, I suggest that you spend the time to think through how you can strengthen you legal protection of your most valuable forms of intellectual property.

Rating:
Summary: Good Reference For My Job
Review: I bought this book for my job when I realized that there was a dirth of trademark knowledge in the office (and in my head!)

It has proven to be very useful. I find the book's organization to be very intuitive. Each section (patents, copyrights, trademarks, etc.) has alphabetical definitions of the related terms. There are even examples of official correspondence.

Although my main goal was to learn more about trademarks, I have learned a lot more about patent terms by reading the book. This book finally helped me understand continuations and divisionals.

My only complaint is that the book tends to focus on U.S. filings and doesn't include a lot of foreign information. I know this would probably make the book longer, heavier, and more dense -- but I tend to have more foreign maintenance fee questions come up in my day-to-day job.

Still, I'm very happy with the book and find it very useful and well-written.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference
Review: In any profession, you'll generally find two sorts of practitioner: the "elitist" and the "populist". The former looks with disdain on customers/users/clients, the latter wants to inform and empower them.

In computer programming, for example, the elitists are the "data priests" who think of users as somehow subhuman and refuse to design interfaces that ordinary human beings can operate or even make sense of. The populists are people like Guido van Rossum, developer of the eminently usable programming language Python (and yes, that's a plug).

There are elitists in the legal profession too, who don't want people to rely on self-help or even to know what the law actually is. Their arguments are usually couched in terms of protecting the public (who, although this is never quite stated explicitly, are presumed to be just too stupid and ignorant to make informed, intelligent decisions without lawyers to tell them they're wrong). But the effect -- as with any legally protected cartel -- is simply to close off the legal profession to anyone who hasn't got enough time and money to jump through the hoops, thereby jacking up attorneys' fees.

That's where Nolo Press comes in. I like Nolo a lot; for thirty years they've been doing business in direct opposition to "legal elitism", by trying to bring reliable legal information directly to their customers and, if not always obviating the need for an attorney, at least giving people a solid foundation for _deciding_ whether to pay for a lawyer. Indeed, their website contains a lot of useful information that you can get _free_; I can't post the URL here but it's "nolo" with the usual suffix.

And I think highly of the sixth edition of their desktop reference on intellectual property law. I'm forty years old and in my fourth year of law school, specializing in IP law, and with a couple of misgivings to be stated shortly, I think this is a fine, fine reference.

It covers the four major areas of intellectual property law: trade secrets, copyrights, patents, and trademarks. There's one big section devoted to each of these areas; each section includes a short introductory discussion in Q&A format, a big fat alphabetical glossary, and the actual text of the relevant (federal) statutes.

The discussion is clear and intelligible, and the sixth edition is updated with up-to-the-minute accounts of stuff on which the ink is barely dry -- the latest on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, for example, and the Supreme Court's March 2003 decision in the _Victoria's Secret_ trademark dilution case. This isn't just a nice self-help reference; it's a volume that law students could probably profit from. (And so could reporters who presume to _write_ on technology law for newspapers and magazines.) The glossaries alone will be helpful in making sense of the sometimes bewildering jargon of IP law.

Two misfeatures, though: the absence of an index, and spotty coverage around the edges of the fields in question.

This book badly needs an index, or at least an analytical table of contents. The alphabetical glossaries are terrific, and they're very useful when you want to look up a specific term or when you just want to browse. But they're nowhere near as handy when you need something specific and you don't already know what it is. A list of contents is needed here. (This isn't as big a drawback as it may sound; the glossaries are sufficiently well cross-referenced that you can open them almost anywhere and follow the "related entries" pointers to the topic you want. But the book isn't as useful as it could be.)

Then too, the book is a little uneven on subjects that are on the margins of intellectual property law. There's some stuff on the law of unfair competition, but there isn't much on privacy and publicity rights. Nor is there much on the law of _protectible information_ in general.

I wasn't, for example, able to find even a single mention of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Granted, this statute isn't exactly front-and-center in IP law. But it certainly bears heavily on a subject on which I expect many users to look to this volume for enlightenment: the use of computers, the Internet, and the World Wide Web in business, the associated risks to the security and integrity of information, and what the law says about them. The CFAA and a few other nearby subjects deserve at least a passing mention, even if only to warn the reader that they exist and this book _doesn't_ cover them.

The book still gets five stars, though. It's an excellent, excellent reference. I expect readers (perhaps especially businesspeople) will be able to read it and come away with a good understanding of this highly complex area of the law -- enough, at least, to decide intelligently whether and when to pay a lawyer, if not to dispense with one altogether in every case. It is, in short, every bit as clear and useful as we expect Nolo Press books to be.

If you're in business and you need to get a handle on IP law, try this one. And if you're a law student planning to specialize in IP law or -- especially -- to take some classes that presume a little _background_ in IP law, you may find this more useful than one of the Nutshell books.

Rating:
Summary: All Business
Review: In modern times, legal firms scour the internet looking for ANYTHING which comes up as a hit for a trademark, regardless of any actual infringement. To make things worse, they are attacking noncommercial activities, and squelching free speech because of the simple finances involved in defending yourself. This book does a FINE job of explaining exactly what THEIR rights are, but not a very good job at all of explaining fair use with trademarks, what constitutes infringement, and what makes up commerce. If you're looking at this book to help defend yourself from some 'cease and desist' letter you unfairly received, sadly it is of little help. I hope in the future they add items for the common man.

Rating:
Summary: All Business
Review: In modern times, legal firms scour the internet looking for ANYTHING which comes up as a hit for a trademark, regardless of any actual infringement. To make things worse, they are attacking noncommercial activities, and squelching free speech because of the simple finances involved in defending yourself. This book does a FINE job of explaining exactly what THEIR rights are, but not a very good job at all of explaining fair use with trademarks, what constitutes infringement, and what makes up commerce. If you're looking at this book to help defend yourself from some 'cease and desist' letter you unfairly received, sadly it is of little help. I hope in the future they add items for the common man.

Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Review: This has a lot of detail and organized information that a patent applicant might use. However, it does not provide an overview quite as well as something like "Patents for Beginners" (PfB). For patent applicants, I would recommend getting both books, but someone like a jurist or an expert witness might be better served by PfB.