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Intellectual Property, Commerce, & Technology

Teaching of Intellectual Property:

The IP Tools and Research Strategy course

at

Franklin Pierce Law Center

Use of Databases, CD-ROM and Other Electronic Means in Training Courses at the Franklin Pierce Law Center

November 1995

Table of Contents

Introduction
The course - IP Tools and Research Strategy
Who?
What?
Where?
When?
How?
Themes of the course
Online
CD Rom
The Franklin Pierce Intellectual Property Library
Applications of non-legal intellectual property database products
Readings
Conclusion

Introduction

Over the last ten years, the Franklin Pierce Law Center has begun to meet the challenge of the information age: information is power and Intellectual property professionals need training in electronic data sources to be competent and competitive.

We have developed many techniques to train our community:

We offer a specialized (and to the best of our knowledge unique) course titled Intellectual Property Research Tools and Strategies; Professors invite librarians and trainers from database vendors into their substantive classes to teach "information units" tied to the practical application of relevant data (for example, classes include Patent Prosecution, Trademarks and Unfair Competition, Business Law and The Global Economy and Legal Skills). Professors assign work products which require students to use database products (for example, the Intellectual Property Valuation class requiring the use of NEXIS financial databases) Professors teach cutting edge issues involving electronic information (for example, classes titled "Data Retention & Recovery in Law Firm and Business Settings" and "Computer Evidence"). We arrange for database vendors to regularly offer topical training in all intellectual property areas. We arrange for database vendors to provide equipment and student representatives who are available forty hours per week to promote, inter alia, the intellectual property application of their services. We have begun to integrate presentations of electronic data into our institutes (for example, "Harnessing the Power of Online Licensing Applications" for the Advanced Licensing Institute, 1995).

Computer tutors present substantive areas of intellectual property law and practice using text and graphics. The tutor software presents problems and questions to the user. The user chooses the answer believed to be correct. The tutor then provides the best answer in one or a series of screens. Twenty computer tutors have been produced by Professor Thomas G. Field, Jr. covering all areas of intellectual property. Some of the Field tutors have been distributed by the Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction and are available on the network America Online. Similarly, Professor William J. Murphy is currently working on tutors for inventors involved with the patenting process. Jon Cavicchi, J.D., the Intellectual Property Librarian and Research Lecturer has organized and developed the Law Center's Internet World Web Pages (www.fplc.edu) which incorporate substantive data prepared at the Law Center as well as an extensive collection of World Wide Web "pointers" to almost one hundred sites around the world offering intellectual property data. Our Web page is available globally as well as at public access terminals at the Law Center. Professors, lecturers, speakers and trainers use multimedia electronic means in training courses (for example, overhead projection, data panels, presentation software such as Microsoft Power Point, slides, videos, etc.).

Intellectual Property Tools and Research Strategies

At this time this paper will focus on the top item of our menu of training tools, not because we consider it the most important tool in the Law Center training of an intellectual property professional, but because it most directly addresses the topic of this presentation--use of databases, CD-ROM and other electronic means in training courses.

The clearest method of describing this course is to lay out the details: the "who, what, where, when and how" of this course.

Who?

This two credit course is has been taught by Jon Cavicchi, J.D., the Intellectual Property Librarian and Research Lecturer, to Law Center J.D., M.I.P and Summer Intellectual Property Institute students since 1993. Dr. Cavicchi is both an attorney and informational professional who has taken most of the courses required by the Law Center for the M.I.P. degree.

Dr. Cavicchi has been joined by a host of guest speakers and trainers from law firms and online and CD-ROM database vendors. The most recent syllabus is attached including details on outside participants.

What?

Intellectual Property Tools is a true skills training course. The basic goals are to teach:

Current sources of intellectual property data
Approaches to find new sources of intellectual property data
How to critically evaluate intellectual property data to decide which access point to use

Themes of the course include:

Change is constant
Data is a commodity
There are multiple access points to most intellectual property data
Data must be made to inform to be useful
The "information explosion" has led to "information anxiety"
Researchers need approaches to evaluate the multiple access points
How to decide who is the proper researcher--attorney, librarian, search company, paralegal, inventor, or a combination thereof
The role of the Internet for intellectual property professionals
The dilemma of authority control with the proliferation of electronic products
Controlled language versus uncontrolled language searching--the
Internet has led to the importance of electronic indexing tools.
The importance of professional organizations as a source of data in all formats (ABA, AIPLA, LES, PLI, WIPO, etc...)
Intellectual property looseleaf services in all formats as a consolidated source for primary and secondary legal information
The importance of research systems in U.S. intellectual property legal research (for example West Publishing, WESTLAW/DIALOG,
Lawyer's Cooperative Total Client Service Library and the family of database products offered in the Law Desk Set and on LEXIS/NEXIS
Generic versus topical tools--that many times, intellectual property data is best found not by searching intellectual property specific sources, but by general sources containing a larger universe of data (for example, using the U.S. House of Representative Web pages for statutes and regulations in lieu of Intellectual property Web pages produced by the Cornell Legal Information Institute which have been found not to have been updated to include certain recent amendments)

The course is divided into two parts. The first part covers integrated research of primary and secondary domestic, foreign, comparative and international legal sources in all formats. Advanced applications include the Internet World Wide Web and Gopher servers, topical databases in lieu of general databases, major U.S. producers of commercial intellectual property treatises (Matthew Bender, Clark Boardman Callaghan and The Bureau of National Affairs) in paper and electronic formats, as well as a growing collection of CD-ROM products containing statues, treaties, cases and administrative law materials.

Students are required to use the online and CD-ROM database products available in the Intellectual Property Library:

Online

In addition to offering electronic resources to research primary and secondary legal authorities, the Intellectual Property Law Library subscribes to numerous online services for nonlegal and law-related information research purposes such as patent, trademark, copyright searches and corporate and governmental intelligence.

The Intelectual Property Library at Franklin Pierce Law Center

The Intellectual Property Law Library has access to hundreds of intellectual property databases offered by the following vendors: BBS s, BRS, DATASTAR, DIALOG, INFORMART ONLINE, LEXIS/NEXIS, INTERNET, MICROPATENT, ORBIT/ QUESTEL, and WESTLAW.

CD-ROM

The Intellectual Property Library is committed to providing CD-ROM technology to patrons. A custom 486 PC Windows work station with attached laser printer is available and the following products are currently available:

CASSIS patent search disks from the Patent & Trademark Office allowing searching by class, patent number, issue year, state or country, assignee name, assignee code, assignor, patent title, class concordance, class index, class definitions and attorney.

Matthew Bender Search Master including such major titles as:

Nimmer on Copyright
Milgrim on Trade Secrets
Trademark Protection and Practice (Gilson)
World Trademark Law and Practice
Patents (Chisum)
Patent Licensing Transactions
Patent Litigation: Procedure & Tactics
World Patent Law and Practice
Patent Office Rules and Practice
Intellectual Property Counseling and Litigation
CAFC: Practice and Procedure
Computer Law
International Computer Law
California Intellectual Property Handbook
New York Intellectual Property Handbook
Micro Patent Bible containing the Manual of Examining Procedures,

Manual of Classification, Index to the Manual, Classification Definitions, Class-toPatent Index, Patent-to-Class Index and the International Concordance.

Samples of the full Micro Patent family of patent searching products
Phone books for trademark searches.

Applications of non-legal intellectual property database products

The second part of the course cover applications of non-legal intellectual property database products for the intellectual property practitioner. Such applications are much wider than those traditionally practiced by legal professionals. Applications include:

Category 1: Intelligence, Reconnaissance & Strategy

Subject Searching

To identify the development of a technology over time
To identify new business opportunities and trends
To protect intellectual property by monitoring new applications and industry data
To review the state of the art before starting a new research project
To review the state of the art before drafting a patent or trademark application

To identify where ideas originate and what markets might be exploited

Category 2: Company or Inventor Searching

To monitor the intellectual property of particular companies or individuals ("competitive intelligence")
To seek out licensing opportunities
To identify whether a company will be able to monopolize an industry with a new invention
To block a competitor's progress--some disclosures may prevent competition gaining a monopoly

Category 3: "Family" Searching

To identify the extent to which intellectual property is protected around the world
To receive regular summaries of new patents in a specified subject area

Category 4: "Traditional" legal searching

To monitor patent and trademark applications as they travel through patent offices
To receive "litigation alerts" on patents and trademarks whose legal status may change because of actions by U.S. courts
To perform different levels of prior art searches for purposes of prosecution or litigation

Category 5: Practical Drafting Strategies

To download the patents in text format for assorted drafting duties

Where?

Classes are taught both in traditional classrooms, the Law Center Intellectual Property Library and the Law Center Online Learning Center. Print, CD-ROM and Internet resources are available in the Intellectual Property Library which is the site of hands on training in group and "one on one" sessions. LEXIS/NEXIS, WESTLAW and DIALOG training takes place in the Online Learning Center on twelve 486 speed dedicated PCs using modems and dial access. The Law Center community has unlimited access to LEXIS/NEXIS, WESTLAW and DIALOG. These services offer a plethora of intellectual property databases ranging from primary authority to patent, trademark and copyrights.

When?

The course is taught for three hours per class, three days per week in June and July. The course has also been taught during the Spring semester.

How?

Teaching methodologies include lecturing, interactive discussions, panels, data shows and demonstrations using computers and data panels, Internet training videos, and hands on training. A copy of the most recent syllabus shows speakers from LEXIS/NEXIS, DIALOG INFORMATION SYSTEMS, WESTLAW, ORBIT, MICROPATENT, Thomson and Thomson, the U.S. Patent Office as well as a Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. area law firm.

Methods of Student Evaluation

1. A "Pathfinder" which is a tool that has been used for decades in advanced legal research courses in U.S. law schools, requires students to integrate and evaluate the various paper and computerized tools and sources on a subject of their choice. The pathfinder counts for up to fifty points (50) of the grade.
2. A Product Evaluation or Research Report of one or more of the online or CD-ROM products. Students are required to critically evaluate when/which product would be indicated from an academic/theoretical perspective and from a business/cost perspective. Students must be creative and use numerous approaches to gain a thorough understanding of the products. For example:

Apply the criteria outlined in Factors on Database Use compiled by Dr. Cavicchi;

Read marketing and user materials located in my office;

Phone the marketing representatives for each of the vendors under review;

Phone practitioners, professional searchers, user groups and interest groups to discuss the products; and

Read product reviews in paper and online.

The full resources of the Library (such as phones, faxes, terminals, copiers, etc.) are at the disposal of the students since the Law Center will offer these work products on the World Wide Web.

The product evaluation or research report counts for up to thirty five points (35) of the grade. A premium is given for thoroughness and creativity.

3. Class attendance and participation count for up to fifteen (15) points.
4. Designated Expert Teams--students are required, in teams, to be designated experts on cross examining one of the vendors on why intellectual property practitioners should use their product. The quality of the cross examination earns teams up to five (5) points.

Readings

There is no required text. Dr. Cavicchi highly suggests students read the chapters in Morris Cohen and Kent Olson, Legal Research in a Nutshell, (West, 1992) listed on the syllabus. Materials are also be handed out in class and are placed on reserve in the Library.

Conclusion

The Law Center has identified the importance of databases, CD-ROM and other electronic means in training courses and practice and has developed many ways in which to use these tools in presentations, instruction and research skills training. The Law Center made a major institutional commitment to these ends with the creation of the Intellectual Property Library and the position of the Intellectual Property Librarian and Research Lecturer who is charged with the evaluation, acquisition and teaching of intellectual property databases, CD-ROM and other electronic means.

This paper has focused on the specifics of the Intellectual Property Research Tools and Strategies course offered at the Law Center. This class offers the most up to date sources of information, as well as an approach to critically evaluate the multiple access points to intellectual property data. The Law Center has a commitment to producing competent intellectual property professionals who, by knowledge of the power of information, have a competitive edge in the global market. The world is becoming more of a global community with the explosion of the Internet. The Law Center has taken the lead with its presence on the World Wide Web, which it plans to vastly expand into the premier World Wide Web site for intellectual property data produced both at the Law Center and globally. The intellectual efforts of our students from around the globe will be available on the Internet and as they join the intellectual property profession in the information age.

This paper was prepared for presentation by Dr. Karl F. Jorda, David Rines Professor of Intellectual Property Law, by Jon R. Cavicchi, J.D., Intellectual Property Librarian and Research Lecturer, Franklin Pierce Law Center, 2 White Street, Concord, New Hampshire, U.S.A. 03301, 603/228-1541, E-mail: jcavicchi@piercelaw.edu.

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