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Intellectual Property

Resources for researching copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secrets law.

Foreign and International IP Materials

  • World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) (open access)
    A United Nations agency, WIPO advocates for international IP cooperation.  WIPO's website provides IP information from a global perspective, hosts WIPO Lex (a database of global treaties, laws, and regulations), discusses WIPO's policy positions, and provides news and IP statistics.  WIPO also has IP databases for searching worldwide patents, trademarks, and industrial designs.

  • International Trademark Association (INTA) (open access)
    An international advocacy organization, INTA provides fact sheets on trademark basics and provides links to its newsletters and blog, among other resources.

  • International Copyright Law and Practice, eds. Lionel Bentley, Burton Ong, Paul Edward Gellar & Melville B. Nimmer (Temple Law access, via Lexis)
    This regularly-updated guide contains in-depth discussion of copyright laws in the European Union and 23 individual countries.

  • Copyright Throughout the World, by Silke von Lewinski (Temple Law access, via Westlaw)
    This guide provides in-depth descriptions of the copyright laws of 26 nations.

  • Baxter, World Patent Law & Practice, by J.W. Baxter, John P. Sinnott, William Joseph Cotreau, Jessica Sinnott & Chen Wang (Temple Law access, via Lexis)
    Baxter explains the patent process in industrialized nations.  Unlike many other treatises focusing on international IP law, it is organized by topic rather than by country.

  • Horwitz on World Trademark Law, by Ethan Horowitz (Temple Law access, via Lexis)
    Horwitz describes trademark law in more than 100 jurisdictions.  The depth of treatment varies by jurisdiction.

  • The Cambridge Handbook of International and Comparative Trademark Law, eds. Irene Caboli & Jane C. Ginsburg (Temple University access, via Cambridge Core)
    This recently-published trademark text analyzes "international and regional frameworks, and provid[es] comparative perspectives on the substantive issues in trademark law and related fields, such as geographic indication, advertising law, and domain names."

  • Trademark Practice Throughout the World, by Mary M. Squyres & Nanette Norton (Temple Law access, via Westlaw)
    This treatise covers all phases of international trademark practice.  It is organized by topic, with particular attention to various international agreements.

  • Trade Secrets Throughout the World, by Melvin F. Jager (Temple Law access, via Westlaw)
    This text provides a current update on foreign and domestic trade secrets legislation and policy.  it contains chapters on 40 countries, including the U.S.

  • Espacenet (open access)
    Espacenet is a European Patent Office database providing free access to more than 100 million international patent documents.  Most of the documents are patent applications, not granted patents.

  • World Trademark Review (WTR) (subscription required to read content)
    WTR is an independent news and information service covering trademark news worldwide.  You can browse news by topic, sector, or region. 

  • The IPKat (open access)
    IPKat is a blog primarily covering patent, trademark, copyright, information technology, and privacy issues in the United Kingdom and Europe.  it is updated daily (expect to see some cat pictures).

  • SpicyIP (open access)
    SpicyIP is a blog covering copyright, patent, and trademark issues in India.  It is updated every few days.

  • Foreign, Comparative, and International Law (Temple Law library guide)
    This Temple Law research guide covers FCIL generally, explaining how to find treaties, national laws, and other foreign and international legal materials.