International and Foreign Legal Research

International and Foreign Legal Research: A Coursebook

Marci Hoffman & Mary Rumsey

Chapter 9: Exercise Part 2—Intellectual Property

1. In 2001, the European Union enacted copyright rules governing “rights- management” information (among numerous other subjects). Find the instrument that contains these rules, and give its title and number:

2. Westlaw has a couple of databases that offer selected intellectual property cases from Europe and the UK, covering patent, trademark, and copyright issues. These databases combine cases from various other sources. Identify either of these two databases.

3. LexisNexis has a treatise on international copyright law with chapters covering several different countries. Give the title of this treatise:

4. Looking at the treatise identified in question 3, what three separate moral rights of authors does Belgian law recognize?

5. Using any source, find a copy of Norway’s copyright law, in English. What is the name of the law?

6. Using the Madrid Express trademarks database at the WIPO site, find the document number of Apples’s “iPod” trademark. (You are looking for a six-digit number that may have a letter at the end—e.g., 123456B.) Give the number:

7. Assume you are preparing to represent your client in a WIPO Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution proceeding. Before you launch into researching prior decisions, you want to know what deference the WIPO panels give to past UDRP decisions dealing with similar factual and legal questions. Using the WIPO Overview of WIPO Panel Views on Selected UDRP Questions, http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/overview/index.html, find a statement of WIPO panel views on this topic and give the name of at least one prior matter in which a WIPO panel addressed the topic: 8. What is the most recent consolidation of Austria’s copyright act available on WIPO’s CLEA database?

9. Compare the versions of Malta’s copyright law available at UNESCO’s database of copyright laws versus the one at WIPO’s CLEA database. Which one is more current, or are they the same?

10. Locate the official site of the patent office of the PRC. List the names of at least two translated statutes or regulations available on that site: