Introduction to International Intellectual Property Law Research
Students of international intellectual property law (henceforth IIP law), may approach the topic from a practical perspective, or a theoretical perspective.
Some information is relevant to both perspectives, such as a basic understanding of the U.S. government, foreign national and international institutions involved.
However, theory oriented IIP law courses tend to focus more on international and regional law making processes, transnational jurisprudence and techniques for resolving cross-border disputes. Seminar paper topics will likely address issues such as: international economic regulations, international regime theories, development studies and third world perspectives.
Practical IIP courses tend to focus on the practice of IIP law in an international arena. Students will want to know what intellectual property protections are available and how to protect the intellectual property rights of clients.
This introductory guide is meant to provide students with a basic overview of the IIP law resources available online and at the UC Hastings Library.
Find Books
Find Articles & Legal Analysis
IIP Legal Institutions
Find IIP Laws and Regulations
Find IIP News
IIP Law Podcasts
IIP Related Organizations
Further Research: IIP Legal Research Guides
Searching For Books
Finding IIP Law Books at Hastings
If you can find a few good books covering your topic, it can make your research much easier. Hastings has a good collection of books on IIP law. Use the Hastings Catalog to find books on your topic and check the Course Reserve list.
Here is a sample search which locates most of the books in the Hastings libray covering IIP law. The following subject searches may be useful, but this is not an exhaustive list.
- Intellectual property (International law) -- Cases
- Intellectual property (International law)
- Copyright, International
- Patents (International law)
- Trademarks (International law)
- Design protection (International law)
- Industrial property (International law)
- Intellectual Property European Union Countries
- Intellectual property -- China
You can also create your own Advanced searches by combining more than one search term in more than one search field.Advanced search example, d:(Intellectual property (International law)) and (Geographical Indications).
Publications by a particular Author can also be isolated, eg. Author: World Intellectual Property Organization. Try also, keyword IIC Studies (series).
Finding Books with a Section on IIP Law
Sometimes books on general Intellectual Property law, or on specific types of intellectual property, have a chapter on International aspects. These types of books can be found by doing an advanced search for a general subject such as Copyright law and for the key word (not subject term) International for example, d:(copyright) and (international)
Browsing for Books
If you find a book that looks interesting, and you are not on campus, click on the call number to browse titles on the shelf nearby. Of course, if you are on campus, browsing the shelves is a great way to find relevant books. Many IIP Law books are on the 5th floor around K1401.
Borrow Books Through Inter-Library loan
For a wider selection of available books, search to see if other libraries have books you can borrow through inter-library loan. If the book you want is not in the Hastings Library, or you would like to locate other books on your topic, use FirstSearch, a database containing information about books from most of the libraries in the English-speaking world. Search the WorldCat database to find book; click on the ILL icon at the top of the page to request the book.
Searching for Articles and Legal Analysis
Subscription Databases: Lexis-Nexis, Westlaw, HeinOnline, BNA Intellectual Property Library
The Hastings Law Library subscribes to a number of Internet-accessible resources that may be useful in your research. All of our online resources are listed here. You can access all of them on campus. Most of them also allow remote access. If you are not on campus, and you click on the database, you will be directed to this screen. To use the database off-campus, enter your name (as indicated on your Hastings ID) and your ID barcode number.
- Lexis full-text law reviews
- Westlaw full-text law reviews
- Hein Online
- BNA Intellectual Property Library
Sometimes law review articles can be one of the best places to find current research on your topic. The sources above can be used to find journal articles. Although there is a lot of overlap on Lexis and Westlaw, you will some unique articles by searching both databases. [This search will cover most of the law review articles written since the mid-1990s. If you have a citation to an law review article that is not on Westlaw or Lexis (and is older than the last year or two), you will probably be able to print a PDF version of the article from HeinOnline.]
IIP Law Sources in Subscription Databases
Lexis-Nexis
Lexis has 2 GATT databases, found at:
International Law > Find Treaties & International Agreements
- GATT - final text of GATT Uruguay Round Agreements
- BISD - principal decisions, resolutions, recommendations and reports adopted by the GATT Contracting Parties.
Copyright Law > Many resources are available under this heading including the following:
Patent Law> Many resources are available under this heading including the following:
- European Patent Office Manual of Classification
- ALLPAT - Combined file of U.S. patents, European patent applications, Patent Abstracts of Japan, and Patent Cooperation Treaty patent applications.
- INPADOC - The INPADOC-Family and Legal Status Database contains bibliographic and legal status information for patents issued in 67 countries and patenting organizations. The International Patent Documentation Center is operated by the European Patent Office in Vienna, Austria.
Trademark Law > Many resources are available under this heading including the following:
Westlaw
Most of the intelllectual property law material on Westlaw can be found in:
HeinOnline
Intellectual Property Law Journal Library
BNA
BNA Intellectual Property Library
Collections of Articles and Bibliographies on IIP Law
- Bibliography of Books and Articles on TRIPS - by Daniel Gervais
- Chinese Law on Trade, Investment and Intellectual Property Rights: A Bibliography of Selected English-Language Materials, 32 Int'l J. Legal Info. 1 (2004) by Chenglin Liu.
- Free Information Products - IIP articles hosted by WIPO
- Searchable Bibliography on IP - World Trade Organization
IIP Law Journals
Online
- The Journal Of World Intellectual Property
- Managing intellectual property (HeinOnline)
- Copyright Bulletin : Quarterly Review Available online through UNESCO
In Print
- International Intellectual Property Law Journals available in print at UC Hastings.
- Intellectual Property Law Journals available in print at UC Hastings.
Search Legal Periodicals Indexes
If you are having difficulty finding relevant articles, you can search the following periodical indexes. These searches are only for the title or abstract of the article, these are NOT FULL-TEXT searches.
- Index to Legal Periodicals & Books online database
- Also available through Lexis (LAWREV:ILP) or Westlaw (ILP)
- Legal Resource Index
- Available on Lexis (LAWREV:LGLIND) or Westlaw (LRI) or the LegalTrac Internet database
- Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals
- Includes some foriegn journals not included in other indexes.
- San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) Periodical
Finder
- Or you can search through the various SFPL journal indexes
- Note: Any CA resident may apply for a SFPL Library card to get online full-text access
About Legal Periodical Indexes
Unlike Lexis and Westlaw full-text law review databases, legal periodical indexes include almost every U.S. law review article from 1980 to present. Therefore, one advantage to seaching these indexes is that it allows you to search more journal articles. Another advantage is when you recive too many irrelevant results from your full-text searches. If this is the case, an index search may give you better results since you are not searching the full-text of each article. Also, if you are intereste din historical reserch, articles published between 1918 and 1980 are only searchable using an index. Select "Legal Periodicals Retro" when searching the Index to Legal Periodicals & Books for these older articles.
The printed indexes are located in the Library's Fourth Floor Reading Room. The bound law reviews are shelved in the Fifth Floor Stacks, while recent unbound issues of law reviews are shelved at the Circulation Desk.
What to do after finding an article in an index or bibliography?
If you have found an article in an index or mentioned in a bibliography, and would like to know where you can access a full-text version, start with Hastings Law Library's e-journal finder. You can also search for the journal title in the Library Catalog, Lexis, or Westlaw.
San Francisco Public Library Non-Law Journals
If an article you have found is not in a law-related journal, and not in one of the non-law online resources at Hastings, you may want to search the online databases collection at the San Francisco Public Library. You can check to see if the journal issue you want is accessible from one of the databases provided by the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL), by searching their Periodical Finder. Or you can search through the various SFPL journal indexes. Any resident of California may apply for a SFPL Library card to get online full-text access.
Retrieve Articles using Inter-Library Loan
If you are unable to find the article using UC Hastings and SFPL resources, you can search for an article using FirstSearch and searching the ArticleFirst database and then click on the ILL icon at the top of the page to request the article.
Intellectual Property Law Institutions
Global Legal Institutions
WIPO, WTO and UNESCO are the main global institutions that administer International Intellectual Property Treaties.
Full-text Creation Agreements and Official Websites
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
- WIPO Lex is an on-line database of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) covering some 10,000 intellectual property (IP) laws/regulations from nearly 200 countries including over 250 IP-related treaties concerning patent, trademark, copyright, industrial design, geographical indication, traditional knowledge, etc. Access is free and all language versions of the legal texts are made available on-line.
- WIPO Official Website
- Convention establishing WIPO - Full text
"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 system, which rewards creativity, stimulates innovation and contributes to economic development while safeguarding the public interest" (from About WIPO: What is WIPO)
Other information available on WIPO official website includes:
- General information on WIPO
- Texts and status of WIPO-administered treaties
- IP Digital Library
- Collection of Laws for Electronic Access (CLEA) (includes full-text national laws)
- On-line Data Collections hosted by WIPO
- WIPO Intellectual Property Handbook: Policy, Law and Use
World Trade Organization (WTO)
Information available on WTO official website includes:
- Information on the WTO
- Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Text of the TRIPS Agreement and news and official records of the activities of the TRIPS Council. If you want to understand TRIPS, this is a good place to start. For more in depth research on TRIPS including information on the 9 forms of intellectual property protection available under TRIPS, see below, part 2
- Information on Intellectual property rights and the TRIPS Agreement
- General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Documents This contains some but not all official documents issued under GATT. GATT is an instrument of public international law that governs disputes between nation states.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
UNESCO has sponsored an number of international intellectual property agreements dealing with copyright, cultural property and the protection of the intellectual property of developing nations.
- UNESDOC is UNESCO's online documents database. It contains Bibliographic records and Full text of UNESCO documents, publications, periodicals since 1945 and the UNESCO website recommends that, researchers contact library@unesco.org for titles that are not on open access.
- The Copyright Bulletin is published by UNESCO. It contains, among other things, articles on:
International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV)
Regional IP Institutions
- European Patent Office (EPO)
- Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (European Union Trademark Office)
- Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP)
U.S. IP Institutions
Foreign IP Institutions
Directory of National IP Offices - WIPO
Sources of Intellectual Property Law
Major International Intellectual Property Treaties
Treaties (This includes conventions, agreements and protocols): Full-Text and Commentary
Copyright
- Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, 828 UNTS 221 (WIPO)
- Universal Copyright Convention, 6 UST 2732; 216 UNTS 133. (UNESCO)
- WIPO Copyright Treaty, 36 ILM 65. (WIPO)
- WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, WIPO Doc. CRNR/DC/96; U.S. Senate Treaty Doc. 105-17 (WIPO)
Patents and Trademarks
- Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, 21 UST 1583; 24 UST 2140; TIAS 6923, 7727; 6 ILM 806. (WIPO)
- Madrid Agreement concerning the international registration of marks, 828 UNTS 390 (WIPO)
- Trademark Law Treaty, 2037 UNTS 35
- Patent Law Treaty, 39 ILM 1047
- Patent Cooperation Treaty, 28 UST 7645; TIAS 8733. (WIPO)
- European Patent Convention, 13 ILM 268. (European patent Office)
(For treaties not listed here, try: WIPO Administered Treaties, or Major Multi-Lateral Intellectual Property Treaties: Citations and Sources (Columbia Law IIP Guide).
TRIPS
Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) , 33 ILM 81. (WTO)
(ii) Links to Commentary
Background on the History of the TRIPs Agreement
- Gervais, Daniel. The TRIPS agreement: Drafting History and Analysis. 3rd ed. (2008).
- Stewart, Terence. Commentary (GATT Uruguay Round: A Negotiating History (1986-1992)). New York: Springer, 1993.
- Bradley, A. Jane. Intellectual Property Rights, Investment, and Trade in Services in the Uruguay Round: Laying the Foundations, 23 Stan. J. Int'l L. 57 (1987) [Hein Online]
For More information on TRIPs, including a select bibliography with links to full-text articles available freely online, or through UC Hastings, and links to relevant books in the UC Hastings Catalog, see the UC Hastings TRIPs Guide.
Online IP Law Databases and Collections of Laws
WIPO Lex - the on-line legal database of intellectual property (IP) laws and treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). This is an amazing free online collection; a great place to start your research.
International
- UNESCO's collection of national copyright and related rights legislation.
This collection contains about 100 laws and is organized geographically. - WIPO's Collection of Laws for Electronic Access,
(CLEA)
This online database provides access to foreign and international intellectual property legislation and treaties.
Regional
- The European Union's Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) This official website links to a database of legal texts and cases related to trademarks.
- European Community Legislation on Intellectual Property - (EUR-Lex)
- Summaries of EC legislation on Intellectual property - (EUROPA)
U.S.
- Global Legal Information Network - Database of laws, regulations, and other legal documents as submitted by governments and international agencies. Maintained by the Library of Congress, Law Library.
- U.S. Copyright Law and Policy - U.S. Copyright Office
- U.S. Patent Laws and Regulations - U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
- U.S. Trademark Laws and Regulations - U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Foreign
- Thailand, China and India IP Case Law database
- Patent and Trademark Law in Japan - Transparency of Japanese Law Project, Legislation, Cases, Commentary.
- Intellectual Property Rights: National Legislation - SICE (the Organization of American State's Foreign Trade Information System)
- Biodiversity Rights Legislation - (GRAIN) A collection of legislation related to Biodiversity Rights, browseable by country or by type of law.
- National Legislation on Intellectual Property Rights - (FTAA) A collection of laws on copyright and related rights and industrial property (patents, trademarks, industrial designs). It also includes legislation on plant varieties protection, layout-designs (topographies) of integrated circuits and transfer of technology. Some links to full text, but mostly the laws are identified and cited.
Collections of IIP Laws in Print
- World Intellectual Property Rights and Remedies K1401 .W675 (5th Stacks)
- Copyright laws and treaties of the world K1419.2 .C6 (5th Stacks)
- International copyright law and practice K1420.5 .I5 1988 (5th Stacks)
News, Blogs & Current Awareness Updates
News
- Intellectual Property, Computer and Internet Law - The CCH Internet Research Network, U.S. Federal and State Copyright and Trademark Law News and Commentary
- IPLaw360
- Lexology
- Mondaq: Intellectual Property
- Managing Intellectual Property
- Intellectual Asset Management
- Intellectual Property Today
- World IP Review
- IP Law and Business
- World Trademark Review
- Asialaw - Intellectual Property
- News on IPRs, Trade and Sustainable Development - IPRsonline.org - Internet portal on Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and Sustainable Development
Blogs
Contemporary Intellectual Property, Licensing and Information Law - Raymond T. Nimmer.
Current Awareness
- BNA Patent Trademark & Copyright Journal
- World Intellectual Property Report - BNA International - K1401.A13 W67 (In Print)
- Public Policy Updates - International Trademark Association
- Intellectual Property Rights - Organization for Economic Property Development (OEPD)
- U.S. Federal Government Publications on Intellectual Property - Searchable database, you can type in "intellectual property" or "patents" or other key words.
- IP Hall of Fame Academy - Annotated list of Major IP Experts
IIP Law Podcasts and Vidcasts
Intellectual Property Vidcasts - Harvard Law School
Intellectual Property Podcasts - Lexis-Nexis
- Developing Defenses in Trademark Law - Graeme B. Dinwoodie
- Fourth Annual Finnegan And Henderson Distinguished Lecture On Intellectual Property (Evolution of the TRIPS Agreement) - Daniel Gervais
- The Role of WIPO in Today’s IP Landscape - Richard Owens
- Noncompetition Agreements & Trade Secret Law in Practice - Gary Glisson
- The Challenges of Drafting a Uniform Law for Software Contracting - Maureen O’Rourke
- Geographical Indications - Dwijen Rangnekar
Select IIP Related Organizations
- Thomas - Legislative Information on the Internet is an internet resource provided by the Library of Congress.
- Franklin Pierce Law Center - Intellectual Property Mall Homepage
- International Information: this site includes a comprehensive list of international governmental organizations' web sites, a list of foreign governments, and links to important topical international issues. It is maintained by the Northwestern University Library, Government Publications and Map Department.
- International Organizations: this is a quick and easy-to-use directory of links to various UN agencies, G7 Information, and GATT documents, which is maintained by the library at UC Berkeley.
- Cornell's Legal Information Institute includes useful copyright information including the Berne Convention
- Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law This site includes a section with some links to full-text publications on IIP Law.
- Intellectual Property Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools
- List of IP Law Associations - Patentlawlinks.com
Research Guides
UC Hastings Research Guides
UC Intellectual Property Capstone Concentration Seminar Research Guide - Basic introduction to IP materials available at UC Hastings.
Non-Hastings Research Guides
- Resource Guide for Researching Intellectual Property Law in an International Context by Andrew Larrick, Columbia Law School, Arthur W. Diamond Law Library.
- This is a comprehensive guide. It describes the weight and applicability of national and international laws regarding international intellectual property rights.
- Both free and paid subscription sources for these laws are identified. Citations and sources for major multi-lateral intellectual property treaties are provided, organized under the three categories, copyright, patents and trademarks.
- The guide also identifies and links to relevant legislation and other sources associated with European Transnational intellectual property systems: Patent, Trademark and Copyright.
- International Intellectual Property Resource Guide by Matt Morrison, Cornell Law library.
- This guide is organized in two main ways: International Intellectual property sources are organized by Convention and by IP subject: Copyright, Patent and Trade Secrets and Trademark and Licensing.
- Features - Update to Researching Intellectual Property Law in an International Context By Stefanie Weigman on LLRX.com
- Weigman's guide defines intellectual property and explains the nature of the international agreements on intellectual property. It identifies primary and secondary sources of foreign and international intellectual property law.
- ASIL Electronic Resource Guide: International Intellectual Property Law by Jonathan Franklin
- The General Search Strategies section gives the researcher a good understanding of what kinds of information she/he can expect to find online.
- This Guide organizes Online sources of primary law by organization and region.
- Online Resources on Intellectual Property Rights - O'Quinn Law Library
- Includes a section on International IP Protection
- IP Research Guide - The Bora Laskin Law Library at the University of Toronto.
- List of annotated links to Canadian-based, U.S.-based, and International Intellectual Property Sources
- Legal research for the 21st century [videorecording] : advanced research
KF240 .B474 2001 (Reference Desk)
The third volume of this 4 video set is on Intellectual Property
Last updated September 1, 2011.
Prepared by Vincent Moyer
FCIL
Librarian
-and-
Catherine Deane, J.D., M.L.S.