IP Cases & Administrative Decisions
--describing and comparing print, CD, online and Web sources--
by
Hui-fang Lu Chou
The decisions of the courts that are published and reported in official and/or unofficial reports. An official report is one that has been designated as such by the federal or state legislature. However, the terms "official" and "unofficial" do not indicate the quality or accuracy of a report. Now, the unofficial reports are by far more popular because they published more quickly than the official reports and contain many research aids. In contrast, the official reports are very slow in being published and generally do not contain research aids.For instance, United States Supreme Court decisions are published in the United States Reports(an official report), and also be found in the Supreme Court Reporter and U.S. Supreme Court Reports(an unofficial reports) which is published by the West Publishing Company and Lawyer Co-operative Publishing Company(Lawyers Coop).
A compact disk in which is stored a lot of data. Intellectual Property Library on CD- ROMS contain the full text of cases from specific year to present. There are several famous companies which publish the intellectual property CD-ROMS. For instances, BNA's Intellectual Property Library on CD (the Bureau of National Affairs Inc.) West CD-ROM (the West Publishing Company), Lawyers Edition on Law Desk (Lawyers Cooperative Publishing Company).
Online service is a computer-assisted legal research (CALR) service provided by West Publishing Company (West Law) and Mead Pata Central (LEXIS). In the broad area of intellectual property law, the online services have special-purpose libraries for patent law, for trademark law, and for copyright law. Each area includes statutes, regulations, cases, administrative materials.
The World Wide Web is also known as the WWW or the W3. The Web stretches out wherever the Internet goes, and allows you to create a menu of Internet resources that meets your needs. A W3 menu is based on what you, or the person who creates the menu, wants. On the World Wide Web you also have the choice of which page to access the data since many pages point to a few computer servers with the data. At this time, only U.S. Supreme Court, most Circuit Court and a few District Court opinions are available. There are several useful Web sites to help us search IP cases:
You can also find
Patent cases at: http://www.law.cornell.edu/syllabi?patent..
(Older cases are at: http://www.law.cornell.edu:80/supct/cases/patent.htm)Trademark cases at: http://www.law.cornell.edu/syllabi?trademark.
Copyright cases at: http://www.law.cornell.edu/syllabi?copyright.
Patent Application Rejections:
Not published. Protected by 35 USC 122 "secrecy option"
Trademark Application Rejections:
Pending appeal, available in Trademark Scan database within two weeks
Print:Official Gazette, OG (until 1968) (Pub: GPO)
Decisions of the Commissioner (until 1968) (Pub: GPO)
United States Patents Quarterly, USPQ (1929 - 1986) and
United States Patents Quarterly Second, USPQ 2d (1987 -date)(Pub:BNA)
Online:
Westlaw (1946 - date) (Pub: West)
published & unpublished decisions
Lexis (1981 - date) (Pub: Mead Data Central)
published & unpublished decisions
CD-ROM:BNA's Intellectual Property Library on CD-ROM
Print:Official Gazette, OG (until 1968) (Pub:GPO)
Decisions of the Commissioner (until 1968) (Pub: GPO)
United States Patents Quarterly, USPQ (1929- 1986) and
United States Patents Quarterly, USPQ 2d (1987 - date)
Online:
Westlaw (1946 - date)
published & unpublished
Lexis (1982 - date)
published & unpublished
CD-ROM:BNA's Intellectual Property Library on CD-ROM
Print:Federal Cases (1789 - 1880) (Pub: West)
Federal Reporter (1880 - 1924) and
Federal Reporter 2d Series, Volumes 1-60 (1924-19vñ2) (Pub: West)
Federal Supplement (1932 - date) (Pub: West)
United States Patents Quarterly, USPQ (1929 - 1986) and
United States Patents Quarterly, USPQ 2 d (1987 - date) (Pub: BNA)
In addition, District Court for the District of Columbia decisions can be found in: The Official Gazette (until 1968) and Decisions of the Commissioner (until 1968)
Online:
Westlaw (1789-date) (Pub: West)
published decisions (1789 - 1944) and published & unpublished decisions (1945- date)
* unpublished US District Court decisions available in a specialized database called Unreported District Court Cases (Identifier: DCTU)
Lexis (1789 - date) (Pub: Mead Data Central)
published & unpublished decision
CD-ROM:BNA' s Intellectual Property Library on CD-ROM
Hyperlaw CD-ROM (1990 - date) (Pub: Hyperlaw)
published & unpublished decisions
Matthew Bender Intellectual Property Authority CD-ROMMichie s Federal Law on Disc--U.S. District Courts (coverage varies)
West Federal District Court Reporters (F.2d vols. 1-60 and F.Supp. vol. 1-date)
INTERNET:Bankruptcy Court -- District of Kansas
United States Claims Court (created 1982) (formerly Court of Claims (1856 - 1982)Print:
Court of Claims Reports (1856 - 1982) (Pub: GPO)
Federal Supplement (1932 - 1960) (Pub: West)
Federal Reporter (1930 - 1932 and 1960 - 1982) (Pub: West)
United States Claims Court Reporter (1982 - date) (Pub: West)
United States Patents Quarterly, USPQ (1929 - 1986) and
United States Patents Quarterly, USPQ 2d (1986 - date)
Online:Westlaw (1929-date) (Pub: West)
published & unpublished decisions
Court of Claims (1945 - 1982)
US Claims Court (1982 - date)
Lexis (1856 - date) (Pub: Mead Data Central)
published & unpublished decisions
CD-ROM:BNA's Intellectual Property Library on CD-ROM
United States Court of International Trade (CIT) (created 1980) (formerly United States Customs Court (1926-1980)Print:
Federal Supplement (1980-date) (Pub: West)
Court of International Trade Reports (1980 - date) (Pub: GPO)
Customs Court Reports (1938 -1980) (Pub: GPO)
Customs Bulletin and Decisions (1980 - date) (Pub: GPO)
International Trade Reporter Decisions (1980 -date) , (Pub: BNA)
United States Patents Quarterly, USPQ (1946 - date) and
United States Patents Quarterly Second, USPQ 2d, (1987-date) (Pub: BNA)
Online:Westlaw (1946 - date) (Pub: West)
published & unpublished decisions
US Customs Court (1954 - 1980)
US Court of International Trade (1980 - date)
Lexis (1962 - date) (Pub: Mead Data Central)
published & unpublished decisions
US Customs Court (1957 - 1980)
US Court of International Trade (1980 - date)
CD-ROM:BNA's Intellectual Property Library on CD-ROM
Tax Court (created 1942) (formerly Board of Tax Appeals (1928 -1942))Print:
Reports of the United States Board of Tax Appeals (1924- 942) (Pub: GPO)
Board of Tax Appeals Memorandum Decisions (1928-1942) (Pub:GPO)
Reports of the United States Tax Court (1942 -date) (Pub: GPO)
Tax Court Memorandum Decisions (1942 - date) (Pub: GPO)
United States Patents Quarterly, USPQ (1929 - 1986) and
United States Patents Quarterly Second, USPQ 2d, (1987 - date) (Pub: BNA)
Online:Westlaw (1928-date) (Pub: West)
published & unpublished decision
Lexis (1928-date) (Pub: Mead Data Central)
published & unpublished decisions
CD-ROM:BNA's Intellectual Property Library on CD-ROM
United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, CAFC, (created in 1982).CAFC replaced:
1) United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals, CCPA, (1929- 1982), which was formerly known as Court of Customs Appeals (1910- 1929)
and
2) The appellate jurisdiction of the former Court of Claims (1856-1982).
Depending on the date of the decision, and the corresponding court, these decisions can be found in:
Print:
Federal Reporter (1910 - 1924) and
Federal Reporter 2d Series (1924 - date) (Pub: West)
Court of Customs Appeals Reports (1910 - 1929) (Pub: GPO)
Court of Claims Reports (1956 - date) (Pub: GPO)
Court of Customs and Patent Appeals Reports (1929 - 1982) (Pub: GPO)
United States Claims Court Reporter (1982 - date) (Pub: West)
United States Patents Quarterly, USPQ (1929 - 1986) and
United States Patents Quarterly Second, USPQ 2d (1987 - date) (Pub: BNA)
In addition, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia decisions can be found in: The Official Gazette (until 1968) and in Decisions of the Commissioner (until 1968).
Online:Westlaw (1856 - date) (Pub: West)
published & unpublished decisions
Court of Claims (1945 - date)
US Court of Customs & Patent Appeals (1929 - 1982)
US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (1982 - date)
Lexis (1856 - date) (Pub: Mead Data Central)
published & unpublished decisions
Court of Claims (1856 - 1982)
US Court of Customs & Patent Appeals (1949 - 1982)
US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (1982 - date)
CD-ROM:BNA's Intellectual Property Library on CD-ROM
ALR Federal on LawDesk
ALR on LawDesk
Hyperlaw CD-ROM (1990 - date) (Pub: Hyperlaw)
published & unpublished decisions
Matthew Bender Intellectual Property Authority CD-ROM
Michie's Federal Law on Disc (coverage varies, generally 1891-date)
Unpublished Opinions of the U.S. Federal Circuit Court (1983-date)
(Pub: Microform Inc.)
West's Circuit Court Reporters (coverage varies)
West's Federal Reporter
INTERNET:Cornell University to search all Circuit court opinions.
United States Supreme CourtPrint:
United States Reports (1789- date) (Pub: GPO)
United States Supreme Court Reports - Lawyer's Edition, commonly known as Lawyer's Edition (1882 - date) now in its 2d series (Pubs: Lawyer's Co-Operative and Bancroft-Whitney) contains all of the decisions of the US Supreme Court
Supreme Court Reporter (1882 - present) (Pub: West)
United States Claims Court Reporter (Pub: 1982) (Pub: West)
United States Patents Quarterly, USPQ (1929 - 1986) and
United States Patents Quarterly Second, USPQ 2d (1987 - date) (Pub: BNA)
Online:Westlaw (1789-date) (Pub: West)
published & unpublished decisions
Lexis (1789 -date) (Pub: Mead Data Central)
published & unpublished decisions
CD-ROM:BNA's Intellectual Property Library on CD-ROM
Hyperlaw (1990 - date) (Pub: Hyperlaw )
published & unpublished decisions
Lawyer's Edition on LawDesk (Pub: Lawyers Coop)
Lawyer's Edition on LawDesk 1789-1945 (Pub. Lawyers Coop)
LOUIS U.S. Reports Law Library (1949-present)
Matthew Bender Intellectual Property Authority CD-ROM
USSC + CD-ROM (Pub: Infosynthesis, Inc.)
West s Supreme Court Reporter (1789-date)
INTERNET:
United States District Court DecisionsPrint:
Federal Cases (1789 - 1880) (Pub: West)
Federal Reporter (1880 - 1924) and
Federal Reporter 2d Series, Volumes 1-60 (1924 - 1932) (Pub: West)
Federal Supplement (1932 - date) (Pub: West)
United States Patents Quarterly, USPQ (1929 - 1986) and
United States Patents Quarterly, USPQ 2d (1987 - date) (Pub: BNA)
Copyright Office Bulletins (1789 - date) (Pub:GPO)
bound yearly as Copyright Decisions (1909 - date)
Copyright Law Reporter ( 1978 - date) (Pub: CCH)
bound every two years as Copyright Law Decisions prior to 1971. Decisions back to 1909 are in Annotations, located through Shephard's US Patents & Trademarks Citations. In addition, District Court for the District of Columbia decisions can be found in The Official Gazette (until 1968) and Decisions of the Commissioner (until 1968).
Online:Westlaw (1789 - date) (Pub: West)
published decisions (1789- 1944) and
published & unpublished decisions (1945- date) unpublished US District Ct decisions available in a specialized file called unreported District Court Cases (Identifier: DCTV)
Lexis (1789 - date) (Pub: Mead Data Central)
published & unpublished decisions
CD-ROM:BNA's Intellectual Property Library on CD-ROM
Hyperlaw CD-ROM (1990 - date) (Pub: Hyperlaw)
published & unpublished decisions
Matthew Bender Intellectual Property Authority CD-ROM
Michie's Federal Law on Disc--U.S. District Courts (coverage varies)
West Federal District Court Reporters (F.2d vols. 1-60 and F.Supp. vol. 1-date)
INTERNET:
United States Circuit Court DecisionsPrint:
Federal Cases(1789 - 1880) (Pub: West)
Federal Reporter (1880 - 1924) (Pub: West) and
Federal Reporter 2d Series ( 1924- date) (Pub: West)
United States Patents Quarterly, USPQ (1929 - 1986) and
United States Patents Quarterly, USPQ 2d (1987 - date) (Pub: BNA)
Copyright Office Bulletins (1789 - date) (Pub: GPO)
weekly looseleaf service bound yearly as Copyright Decisions (19xx-)
Copyright Law Reporter ( 1978 - date) (Pub: CCH) bound every two years as Copyright Law Decisions prior to 1971 decisions back to 1909 are in Annotations, located through Shephard's US Patents & Trademarks Citations. In addition, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia decisions can be found in The Official Gazette (until 1968) and in Decisions of the Commissioner (until 1968).
Online:Westlaw (1789 - date)
published & unpublished decisions
Lexis (1789 - date) (Pub: Mead Data Central)
published & unpublished decisions