Not long ago, a business was judged by the strength of one’s Rolodex® entries. Twenty-first century business thrives on having the right online connections at LinkedIn®, Facebook® and other key sites.
A critical aspect of practicing trademark and copyright law is reviewing the facts in the context of the law. The Internet provides access to select facts in an amazing way. Consider The WAYBACK MACHINE at www.archive.org. A virtual treasure trove, “the Internet Archive Wayback Machine is a service that allows people to visit archived versions of Web sites. Visitors to the Wayback Machine can type in a URL, select a date range, and then begin surfing on an archived version of the Web.” This site can be extremely useful when evaluating who was the first party to use a certain mark.
More generally, Internet resources extend a professional practitioner’s capabilities. So in the World Wide Web spirit of sharing information, here are some key online intellectual property resources that we rely on at Shapiro Law.
Trademark
- U.S. Trademark Office, official United States trademark headquarters
- TESS Trademark Electronic Search System Search for issued registrations and pending applications
- ID Manual Acceptable Identification of Goods and Services Manual
- TEAS Trademark Electronic Application System, the Web resource to apply for a U.S. trademark
- TMEP Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure
- TTAB Trademark Trial and Appeal Board
- TBMP Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Manual of Procedure
- Law The Lanham Act, CFR regulations, and other rules
- Directory of Intellectual Property Offices around the world
- World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Home of the Madrid System and other treaties and conventions.
- INTA International Trademark Association, an organization of trademark holders and attorneys
- TTABlog Best trademark blog for legal practitioners
- Timeline: USPTO process diagram of a trademark application based on the mark’s use in commerce
- Trademark Usage Guidelines Information on the correct way to use and notify of a mark
- Rebecca Tushnet’s blog on false advertising and more
Focus on Clearance Resources
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Domain Names and the Internet
- UDRP The Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy requires that most types of trademark-based domain-name disputes must be resolved by either agreement, court action, or arbitration before a registrar will cancel, suspend, or transfer a domain name.
- Case decisions and more information on the UDRP process
- NameDroppers Domain name availability based on keywords.
- Domainssbot turns names and words into a variety of possible domains and informs you which are available and which in use
Focus on New Top Level Domains
Large GTLD applicants
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Copyright
- U.S. Copyright Office, official United States copyright headquarters.
- eCO online, the Web resource to apply for a U.S. copyright registration
- Search copyright records for registrations issued since January 1, 1978
- Circulars & brochures, forms, and factsheets Publications on a wide range of copyright topics
- Law U.S. Copyright law
- What is Copyright Law? A primer from the Copyright Clearance Center
- Copyright Law and Fair Use, Stanford University Library
- Electronic Frontier Foundation With the growth of the Internet, we are all authors, publishers, and sharers of copyrighted works. Organization focuses on digital users’ rights
- Creative Commons copyright licenses provide a simple, standardized way to give the public permission to share and use your creative work.
- Naomi Gray on Copyright www.shadesofgraylaw.com
Patent
- And practically the only patent thing on my website: YourPatentGuy’s Patent Resources