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Legal Research
Intellectual
Property Law
Patent Law
In addition to having a
patent
search engine and an online version of the
Official Gazette, the
US Patent &
Trademark Office also contains numerous patent forms in Adobe
Acrobat PDF format that can be downloaded from its web site.
Cornell's Legal Information Institute
has a concise page concerning patent law that can be useful to the
practitioner as well as the non-lawyer. A listing of foreign government
patent offices can be found on this page of the
US
Patent & Trademark Office's web site. The
most important foreign patent offices are the
European Patent Office
and the Japan
Patent Office.
Copyright Law
If you want to get information concerning
Copyrights, you should go to the
Copyright
Office of the Library of Congress for basic
information, downloadable forms in PDF format, and information concerning
practice procedures. For the more advanced researcher, it will also point
you to international treaties and other useful information.
Trademark Law
The
US Patent & Trademark Office
contains numerous trademark forms in PDF format that can be downloaded as
well as the
U.S. Trademark Law Rules of Practice & Federal
Statutes and an on-line version of the
Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure.
The US Patent & Trademark Office's
Search
and Status Databases were launched in
September 1998 and provide a usually reliable and cost-effective (free) way to search
for the availability and status of federal trademarks and service marks.
It is obviously also important to visit a
Whois database to check for available
high-level domain names. Because state law also protects
trademarks and service marks under certain circumstances, a review of local
law is also suggested.
Trade Secret Law
Unlike patent, copyright, and trademark law, trade
secret law relies primarily on state statutory or common law (New Jersey and
New York rely on common law or "judge-made" law to protect trade
secrets). Accordingly, a review of local law is required to determine what
is required to create and protect a trade secret. Chicago attorney R. Mark Halligan, Esq. has put up a web site devoted entirely to trade secret
matters called
The Trade Secrets Home Page
and it is probably a good place to start any research. The site also
includes
reported prosecutions under the Economic Espionage Act of 1996.
New
Jersey Law Search
Finding Law
The best place to begin any NJ legal research
project is at
The New Jersey Law Network,
where you can find in one convenient place pointers to NJ statutes, cases,
and other research materials. Some direct helpful links include:
NJ Constitution,
NJ Statutes,
NJ Supreme Court,
NJ Appellate Division,
Judicial Directories,
NJ Court Decisions,
NJ Court Calendars,
NJ Online Filing,
NJ Rules of Evidence,
NJ
Court Rules,
NJ Ethics Rules,
NJ
Verdicts.
Finding Lawyers
In 1960, there was one lawyer for every 836 New
Jersey residents. Today, that ratio has jumped to about one for every 130
state residents. The New Jersey Office of Attorney Ethics recently
projected that by the year 2008, 102,696 attorneys will be practicing law in
New Jersey -- a ratio of one licensed attorney for every 80 New Jersey
residents.
A personal referral will always be the most
effective way of locating good counsel. Another way to choose an attorney in New Jersey is
to contact your local County Bar Association Referral Service. For example,
the Essex County Bar Association has a very active referral service that can
be reached at 973-622-6207. Also, you may want to browse attorney-search
web sites such as
NJ Lawsite,
NJ Lawyer, or AttorneyFind
to locate counsel that specializes in your area of inquiry.
New
York Law Search
State Practice
Some helpful links include:
NY
Constitution,
NY Consolidated Laws,
NY Unconsolidated Laws, NYC
Ordinances, C.P.L.R.,
Court of Appeals, NY
Online Decisions,
NY Unified Court System,
NY Administrative Rules,
NY Judges Rules,
NY Court Rules,
NY Attorney Court Schedules,
NY Supreme Court Calendars,
NY Online Filing.
Federal Practice
If you need the Local Rules of the United States
District Courts For the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York you can
find them at either the
E.D.N.Y. official web site
or the
S.D.N.Y. official web site. In
addition to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Local General Rules
of the District, Judges often have their own set of rules. The S.D.N.Y.
web site also provides the
Individual Practices and Procedures of its Judges and Magistrate Judges.
Notwithstanding
its
rigid adherence to form, there is still no better place to litigate than in
the Southern District of New York. The history of the court (oldest in the
country) coupled with the high caliber of its judges make it unlike any court in
the country.
National Law
Search
Three informative and comprehensive law
sites are
FindLaw Internet Legal Resources site for
general references and contact information,
The Legal
Information Institute of Cornell University
for federal practice materials and cases, and The
Internet Law Library (formally hosted by
the US House of Representatives) for quick access to federal law and
individual state law.
Cornell's site offers
recent and historic
Supreme Court decisions,
U.S. Code,
U.S. Constitution,
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure,
Federal
Rules of Evidence, and other important legal materials -- federal, state,
foreign and international.
The Internet Law Library allows you to
search the US Code as well as points you to the laws of most states.
If you know the local jurisdiction you are in and
want to find information on a particular state court you may want to go to
the State Court Locator of the Center for Information
Law and Policy. As to finding federal
court decisions, you can always start at the
U.S.
Federal Courts Finder of the Emory Law
Library web site or the
Villanova Law site
listing of federal courts.
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