Latest & Greatest – The Intellectual Property Handbook: A Practical Guide for Franchise, Business, and IP Counsel

Edited by Christopher P. Bussert and James R. Sims III

Published by American Bar Association Forum on Franchising and Section of Intellectual Property Law

KF 2979 .I4315 2016

Written for non-IP specialists, The Intellectual Property Handbook: A Practical Guide for Franchise, Business, and IP Counsel provides a substantive and practical overview of the most common intellectual property issues, including trademarks, copyrights, patents, trade secrets, cyber law, and social media issues. Besides describing the federal registration process, the authors explain basic trademark principles, everything from forms and types to the strength of the trademark and address the issues to consider when choosing a trademark. Equally important is the discussion of how to protect those rights and the types of legal actions to take to enforce those rights. In addition to highlighting domestic trademarks, the authors also cover domain names and trademarks on the Internet. Look for a discussion of the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act and the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy adopted by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

Interested in copyright? The authors devote an entire chapter to the topic and define subject matter that is copyrightable, detail the rights granted by copyright, navigate the waters of the registration process, and address the issue of infringement.

Looking for information on patents? The authors have got you covered there as well. They explain what a patent is and what can be patented and help you with the patent application process. The authors also offer some patent protection strategies and enforcement remedies.

The chapter on trade secrets is full of useful information, such as what a trade secret is, its definitional elements, the steps to be taken to protect the trade secret, and the remedies available should the trade secret be misappropriated.

Lastly, the authors discuss data privacy and security, cloud computing, and social media and the IP concerns that may arise during the use of social networking services, including issues relating to trademark, copyright, personal information, and employee information.

Latest & Greatest - Continuing Legal Education Resources

Have you checked out our CLEs Lately? If not, you should. Harris County Law Library is home to hundreds of volumes of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) coursebooks published annually by the State Bar of Texas. These resources are often overlooked as a form of research, but they can provide valuable insights into a particular area of law. They typically include legislative updates, focused discussions regarding specific issues, court trends, and recent case law developments. The articles are written by experienced attorneys who are recognized experts in their field and regularly practice in that area.

The library collects CLE materials for many subject areas, including family law, wills, trusts, & probate, employment law, litigation, real estate law, criminal law, and much more. Just look at our catalog to see what we have. Coursebooks usually hit the shelves at the beginning of the year following the year in which they are published. This means that you can now find 2016 course materials in our library.

For those of you who may not have visited our library in a while or for those of you who are regular visitors who may not have noticed, we have rearranged and moved our CLE materials. All CLE resources, including the criminal law coursebooks, are now shelved in one location of the library. Also, in an effort to make the collection more accessible, we have aligned our CLE categories to more closely match those set out by the Texas State Bar and the various law sections comprising the Houston Bar Association. Thus, some of our familiar categories may have a new name. For example, estate planning coursebooks have been moved to a new category: Probate, Estates, & Trusts, and DTPA materials are shelved in the Commercial and Consumer Law section. If you have any trouble locating a particular topic or are wondering whether we have a particular resource, just ask one of our helpful librarians for assistance.

In addition, we have added the tables of contents of the CLE coursebooks to our library catalog. So, if you are looking for a specific presentation or a particular topic, you can now search our catalog to see if we have it. The contents are included on CLEs from 2014 to present.

Latest & Greatest – The Copyright Librarian: A Practical Handbook

By Linda Frederiksen

Published by Chandos Publishing

Z 649 .L53 F74 2016

Suppose a patron or professor or lawyer wants to photocopy an entire chapter of a multi-volume treatise. Can he? Is such copying considered fair use? Perhaps. Ask the copyright librarian; she will know. Ask the copyright librarian? Huh? Who's that? Look at it this way: you know what copyright is (well at least theoretically) and you know what a librarian is. Putting the two together results in a copyright librarian or a copyright specialist or as the author terms it, an information professional who educates others about the “ethical use and best practices surrounding copyrighted materials.”

In her book, The Copyright Librarian: A Practical Handbook, Linda Frederiksen points out that as the intermediary between the creators of information and the users of that information, librarians should be well-versed in copyright laws as to know and understand when an infringement of a creator’s copyright has occurred or to provide guidance when faced with a copyright dilemma. Considering the confusing, complex, and often ambiguous, nature of copyright laws, the task is far from simple and incredibly daunting. The Copyright Librarian is not a book for those seeking an explanation of the law of copyright but rather is intended for librarians and information professionals who are interested in becoming a specialist in the field of copyright, thereby enabling them to respond to questions about copyright and how it affects the use of information. The author describes how copyright is necessarily intertwined in library functions, from acquisitions and collection development to cataloging and circulation. She further explains how a librarian interested in copyright can acquire the necessary knowledge to become a specialist through professional development, continuing education, and current awareness and delineates what a copyright librarian ought to know.

If this a field that you would like to explore further, come to the Harris County Law Library and have a look at The Copyright Librarian: A Practical Handbook. Perhaps you can get in on the ground floor of this emerging specialization.