Study Guides for 2L/3L Classes

The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) provides are computer-based, interactive tutorials that cover narrow topics of law. There are over 1,200 lessons available on 60 different topics. Current W&L Law students can click here for the Authorization Code to sign up for a free account.

The Lexis Digital Library is an e-book collection of primary and secondary legal materials, plus a range of study aids for law school subjects from LexisNexis. Contains over 700 titles on 60+ legal topics, including the Understanding, Skills & Values, and Questions & Answers study aids series. Complimentary access is provided by the W&L Law Library to current W&L Law students.

West Academic offers hundreds of study aids written by top legal scholars that are designed to help you succeed in law school, including Nutshells, Hornbooks, Black Letter Outlines, Sum and Substance Audio Lectures, and more. All are free to view online or download to your mobile device with a valid W&L Law account through the linked heading above.

Online access available through West Academic. This study aid uses outline-like checklists to lead law students through the analytical steps necessary to analyze intellectual property issues. The book covers trademark, patent, copyright, and trade secret law. Each chapter begins with a brief review of the important rules and concepts that govern a particular area of intellectual property law. The review material is followed by a checklist that provides students with a clear roadmap for answering intellectual property questions. Each chapter concludes with practice problems and solutions that illustrate how students can use the checklist to analyze intellectual property issues.

Online access available through West Academic. This title provides a clear and thorough exploration of the doctrinal and policy issues in American copyright law. Topics covered: History of the development of authors' rights and of copyright; Subject matter, including original works of authorship and artificial intelligence; Ownership, including works made for hire, transfers of ownership and termination of transfers; Duration and Formalities; Exclusive rights, including their transposition to the digital environment; Fair use, including the impact of the Supreme Court's decision in Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith, and the operation of fair use in the digital and AI environments; Secondary liability, both at common law and as developed through application of the DMCA to Internet service providers; Enforcement, including "paracopyright" protections against circumvention of technological protection measures and for copyright management information; Federal preemption of state law, including with respect to mass market "browsewrap" licenses.

Are you an inventor, law student, engineer, patent agent, or patent attorney? If so, then this book is for you Crash Course on U.S. Patent Law is written in simple, accessible language - a useful resource for the novice inventor and entrepreneur as for the expert patent attorney and law firm clients. While there are numerous books on patent law in the market, Crash Course on U.S. Patent Law provides concrete examples, including invaluable boilerplate language not found on the Internet that is grounded in extensive patent experience.

A favorite classroom prep tool of successful students that is often recommended by professors, the Examples & Explanations (E&E) series provides an alternative perspective to help you understand your casebook and in-class lectures. Each E&E offers hypothetical questions complemented by detailed explanations that allow you to test your knowledge of the topics in your courses and compare your own analysis.

A favorite classroom prep tool of successful students that is often recommended by professors, the Examples & Explanations (E&E) series provides an alternative perspective to help you understand your casebook and in-class lectures. Each E&E offers hypothetical questions complemented by detailed explanations that allow you to test your knowledge of the topics in your courses and compare your own analysis.

Online access available through West Academic. Authors emeritus professor Michael Davis and famed Harvard professor Arthur Miller provide authoritative coverage on the foundations of patents, trademarks, and copyright laws. Authoritative treatment of all relevant doctrines and the latest statutory and judicial changes. Text further addresses relevant torts, property, antitrust, regulatory, and federalism intersections with intellectual property law.

Online access available through West Academic. This audio book focuses on one of the most vibrant and important areas of the law — Intellectual Property. Intellectual Property offers legal protection for creative efforts by artists, musicians, moviemakers, architects, inventors, advertisers, brand developers, and more. This book surveys the entire field of Intellectual Property — copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, the right of publicity, and other laws that are relevant to this timely topic. The audio book approaches the central issues in a conversational style, focusing on all of the key questions that are on Intellectual Property exams: what is protected and what is not; who owns the rights; how the rights may be infringed; defenses and limits on the rights; and
remedies for Intellectual Property violations.

This essential desk reference for patent attorneys, engineers, entrepreneurs, innovators, development professionals, and students has been updated with the latest court cases and legislation.In a world in which businesses thrive on innovation, it is more important than ever to understand the sometimes arcane rules through which human ingenuity becomes intellectual property. Although many reference works on patent law exist, they are written for specialists.

Online access available through West Academic. This Nutshell provides a succinct description of the fundamentals of U.S. patent law. Ranging from the acquisition of patent rights to their enforcement, it contains an overview of relevant statutes, rules, and cases that collectively define this area of intellectual property law. Topics include claim construction, obviousness, anticipation, written description and enablement, infringement, remedies, and other notable doctrines. Patent law has evolved quickly in the past few years. This Nutshell captures those changes and relates them well to the overall fabric of intellectual property law.

A brilliantly clear and up-to-date patent guide Patent law is changing, and this bestselling primer on patent law has up-to-date information on the America Invents Act, the most important change to American patent law in two centuries. Packed with detailed information, Nolo's Patents for Beginners explains how to: document your invention acquire patent rights "read" a patent application understand how and why to make a patent search determine patent ownership find patent information understand international patent law decide whether to file a provisional patent.

Online access available through West Academic. This book provides a comprehensive survey of the entire field of intellectual property, including copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, unfair competition, and the right of publicity. It is designed to be reader-friendly and is up-to-date through October 2016, including many new important Supreme Court decisions in copyright, patent, and trademark law. It can be a study guide for an intellectual property survey course or used as a useful introduction or refresher for anyone interested in the field. The book focuses primarily on three main federal intellectual property rights - copyrights, patents, and trademarks - along with the new federal trade secret law and important areas of state law protection (such as the right of publicity).

Online access available through West Academic. The new edition of this leading text on patent law is an indispensable tool for both students and practitioners. The authoritative exposition of the law includes thoughtful analysis of the intricacies of the America Invents Act, in-depth discussion of nearly twenty recent Supreme Court decisions on patent law, and thorough treatment of all the leading Federal Circuit precedents. The volume also contains detailed materials on international issues, trade secret law, and specialized topics including plant patents, design patents and the Hatch-Waxman Act.

Online access available through West Academic. This new volume hits the sweet spot of thorough and thoughtful coverage of trademark law without bogging readers down in minutiae and a blizzard of footnotes. Materials on licensing and assignments, online trademark issues, and international topics augment the traditional discussion of trademark acquisition, validity, infringement, and dilution. The book would work well for end-of-semester review or as a supplementary text with, or substitute for, the usual casebook and will serve as a useful reference work for practitioners long after the course is over.

Online access available through the Lexis Digital Library. The questions and answers in this book cover the broad subject of "intellectual property" in a comprehensive way, targeted to an introductory or survey course. All of the major topics in this fascinating area of law are included--namely, trademark, the right of publicity, trade secret, patent, and copyright--and the coverage has been updated with major changes in the law through mid-2019. The key aspects of each of these areas are systematically addressed using the following organization--subject matter and validity, ownership and duration of rights, infringement and remedies, and defenses and limitations.

Online access available through West Academic. Right of Publicity in a Nutshell will orient and acclimate the reader to the structure, public policy, claims, issues, and defenses of right of publicity law that regulates the use of celebrity names, images, and likenesses. The guide will teach you the vocabulary to use when consulting with lawyers, clients, accountants, financial planners, and insurers in the arts, entertainment, and sports fields. The book covers the concept of a right of publicity, the origin and distinctions between privacy and publicity law, the modern right of privacy, the theory and policy supporting the right of publicity, the requirements of a right of publicity action, the post-mortem right of publicity, copyright preemption and the effect of licensing, the federal false endorsement and false designation of origin claims, fair use of celebrity names, images, and likenesses, and the future of the right of publicity.

Online access available through West Academic. The Short and Happy Guide to Copyright is a succinct, enjoyable, and time-friendly text that is designed for you: To get up to speed on the biggest issues of copyright law, and the black letter law addressing those issues; To educate yourself as to your future clients' rights, potential liabilities, and options and opportunities regarding legal problems in copyright. Whether you plan to specialize in copyright or intellectual property, or simply want to be available to your firm or law office as an attorney who can take on a novel problem in an exciting and potentially high-profile and high-dollar-value area of your firm's or office's practice, this book will be useful to you.

Online access available through West Academic. Trade Secret Law is the first and only book in the Nutshell series to cover trade secret law in depth. It was written as a companion to Cases and Materials on Trade Secret Law by Rowe and Sandeen (the first casebook on trade secret law), but adds more practical advice. Thus, it is a useful resource for attorneys and law students alike. It could be a supplement to a course on trade secret law or an IP survey course that covers trade secret law, as most now do. Like the casebook, it focuses on the predominate state law governing trade secrets in the U.S.: The Uniform Trade Secrets Act (now applicable in 49 of 50 states), as well as the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA). This Nutshell addresses both international and criminal enforcement of trade secret rights. The Third Edition has been expanded and includes significant legal, legislative, and administrative developments, as well as recent cases applying and interpreting the DTSA.

Online access available through West Academic. This text provides a comprehensive treatment of the law of trademark, unfair competition, false advertising, and the right of publicity.

Online access available through the Lexis Digital Library. The eighth edition of Understanding Copyright is a major revision of this classic student treatise. This edition reflects the substantial developing case law and legislative developments that have taken place since 2019, including an analysis of the eagerly awaited fair use decisions of Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc. and Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith, which marked the first time in several decades that the Court has ruled on this "thorniest" issue of copyright law. Other case law developments are also included, such as the challenges brought about by generative artificial intelligence and other digital technologies. As always, Congress continues to change the face of copyright law, and this edition includes an overview of the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act of 2020 (the CASE Act), which establishes a small claims court-type system within the United States Copyright Office.

Online access available through the Lexis Digital Library. There have been a number of important developments in U.S. intellectual property law since the third edition of Understanding Intellectual Property Law was published. Congress enacted the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 to provide a federal civil cause of action for misappropriation of trade secrets for the first time. It also enacted the Music Modernization Act of 2018, which extends the compulsory license for musical works by creating a blanket license for digital music providers and provides federal protection to sound recordings fixed before February 15, 1972.

Online access available through the Lexis Digital Library. Patent law is an important, fascinating, and rapidly changing field. This book was written for all who need to understand these recent changes, as well as for students in intellectual property courses. For those engaged in international practice, this work sheds helpful light on the key doctrines and theories underlying U.S. patent law. More examples and explanatory material, as well as flow charts, have been included in this edition to provide some practical application of abstract or difficult concepts. The most significant areas of updated materials include the rapidly evolving law concerning statutory subject matter, nonobviousness, and the application of the America Invents Act. This work covers the latest U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including SAS Institute v. Iancu, Oil States Energy Services v. Greene's Energy Group, Helsinn Healthcare v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, and WesternGeco v. ION Geophysical Corporation.