But what we have for you this week, by request, are a few key resources to help you understand intellectual property laws around the world. We highlight particular features that you may find especially interesting and/or useful.
We also suggest checking any good law library website for research guides and other relevant materials. If you happen to work at one and want to share something from your site, please clue us in so we can append it to this article. Just this week, Gary posted a link to a particularly nice collection from the Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale University.
Of course, it only makes sense here to start with:
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations. It is dedicated to developing a balanced and accessible international intellectual property (IP) system, which rewards creativity, stimulates innovation and contributes to economic development while safeguarding the public interest.
The alphabetical list of Member States is especially valuable because each country name is a live link that takes you to "information on membership of the different WIPO treaties; national IP legislation; contact details of IP Offices; country profile, and more."
The Collection of Laws for Electronic Access database provides "easy access to intellectual property legislation from a wide range of countries and regions as well as to treaties on intellectual property."
To create a genuine Single Market in Europe, restrictions on freedom of movement and anti-competitive practices must be eliminated or reduced as much as possible, while creating an environment favourable to innovation and investment. In this context, the protection of intellectual property is an essential element for the success of the Single Market. In our growing knowledge-based economies the protection of intellectual property is important not only for promoting innovation and creativity, but also for developing employment and improving competitiveness.
Intellectual property is divided into two categories: industrial property, which includes inventions, trademarks, industrial design, and geographical indications of source; and copyright, which includes literary and artistic works such as novels, films, musical works, paintings, photographs, and architectural designs. Rights related to copyright include those of performing artists in their performances, producers of phonograms in their recordings, and those of broadcasters in their radio and television programs.
The information and articles published by GlobaLex represent both research and teaching resources used by legal academics, practitioners and other specialists around the world who are active either in foreign, international, and comparative law research or those focusing on their own domestic law. The guides and articles published are written by scholars well known in their respective fields and are recommended as a legal resource by universities, library schools, and legal training courses.
The Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) is a public database of laws, regulations, judicial decisions, and other complementary legal sources contributed by governmental agencies and international organizations. These GLIN members contribute the official full texts of published documents to the database in their original language. Each document is accompanied by a summary in English and subject terms selected from the multilingual index to GLIN. All summaries are available to the public, and public access to full texts is also available in participating jurisdictions. To begin searching GLIN, use the search fields below.
If you have a special "interest in legal developments from around the world," take a look at the Global Legal Monitor newsletter, in PDF format. An archive of past issues (back to May 2006) is available via a dropdown menu.
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+ Lex Mercatoria, which is "hosted by The Law Faculty of the University of Oslo, Norway, in fellowship with The Institute of International Commercial Law, Pace University, School of Law," bills itself as "One of the VERY First Law Sites on the Web".
It is dedicated to the provision of information on international commercial law with subsidiary interests in commerce and (mostly open standard) Net and information technologies that may be of interest to law academics and professionals worldwide.
For those who wish to seek protection for their intellectual property beyond the borders of the United States of America as well as for those non-US customers who wish to seek patent or trademark protection in the United States of America.
Basically a collection of organized links: organizations, regional organizations, laws & regulations, enforcement, international protection, other references. Digging around here unearthed a link to the International Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Training Database, "maintained by agencies of the United States Government and industry associations who provide training and technical assistance relating to protecting IPR." Browse or search the database for workshops, meetings, courses, etc. A button. For each entry, a "Contact Sponsor" button displays an online form that makes it easy for you to request information.
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