Take it from the agency -- 3 great free publications from the USPTO and the Copyright Office

The way that laws and regulations is written is extremely important. If the wording is imprecise, enterprising people find loopholes and, before you know it, the intent of the law is undermined. Our Federal goverment has a couple of hundred years' experience creating the kind of air-tight prose that holds up to scrutiny, and while this kind of language is important for those interested in the law, it's almost always incomprehensible for those poor folks (call them laypeople) who have to try to do some kind of business with the government.

The commercial publishing industry certainly has picked up on the market for people who want help dealing with the government, and many of the millions of people each year who want to apply for a patent or register a trademark or copyright get some help using titles from NOLO Press, Sphinx, Oceana, and other publishers.

It's worth noting that, in addition to commercially produced guides to intellectual property, the agencies themselves (in this case the USPTO and the US Copyright Office) have done an excellent job of creating materials to educate the public about these areas of law. Although commercial publishers have the advantage of being able to offer subjective legal advice to readers, the agencies themselves are the most authoritative source for information about intellectual property. Below are just three examples of publications that I find particularly useful:

Copyright Circular 1: Copyright Basics
United States Copyright Office

There are some people who need lots of detailed information about copyright in the U.S. Attorneys, for instance. Or artists who plan to use someone else's work or prevent someone else from using their work. Recording industry executives seem pretty interested in our copyright law, as do some Members of Congress. For these folks, there are mountains of materials, published by commercial, academic, and government presses, covering laws, legislation, case history, trends, etc. in the field of copyright.

For the rest of us, there's a wonderfully concise series of publications, called Circulars, that come to us courtesy of the U.S. Copyright Office. There are a couple dozen of these things, covering pretty much every matter of business most folks will ever have with the Copyright Office. I'm not promising a riveting read (example: Circular 4oA, Deposit Requirements for Registration of Claims to Copyright in Visual Arts Material). I do think, however, that in an information environment rife with misinformation (I'm referring to the Internet), it's extremely important to have reliable, authoritative information about legal topics. Copyright Circular 1 is just that. It's readable, informative, comprehensive, and pretty darn concise considering the breadth of the subject matter that it covers. This is an excellent place to begin any copyright research.

A Guide to Filing a Utility Patent Application
US Patent and Trademark Office

David Pressman's Patent it Yourself is probably our most popular guide to filing a utility patent. One of the major selling points of the book is Pressman's direct, no-frills writing style. It's a testament to the complexity of the patent system, then, that such a concise writer still requires 572 pages (in the latest edition) to demonstrate how to get a patent.

A Guide to Filing a Utility Patent Application, the USPTO's consumer patent application pamphlet, is 16 pages long and is, arguably, as indispensable for fledgling patentees as Pressman's book. How? It's written in haiku (not true). The pamphlet is actually short simply because it contains a lot less information than Pressman's book does. It is, however, still very useful because it contains the very basic facts about what patent examiners expect from a utility patent application in one short, direct, and authoritative volume.

Think of it this way: Will the Periodical Table of the Elements tell a layperson everything about chemistry? Of course not. But, when used alongside other, more expository texts, it is an essential reference in that field. Same goes with A Guide to Filing a Utility Patent Application. Here at the library, we keep copies on hand for quick reference.

(By the way, if you want to know everything there is to know about U.S. patent prosecution, I refer you to the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure, all four inches (thickness, that is) of small print and tissue-thin paper.)


Basic Facts About Trademarks
US Patent and Trademark Office

There are few trademark questions that come across our reference desk that have an answer that cannot be found in the USPTO's Basic Facts About Trademarks. Should I register my mark? Page 1! How do I submit a colored drawing? Page 6! How long does my registration last? Page 14! There's even a current International Schedule of Goods and Services on pages 16-17. Basic Facts does for trademark researchers what A Guide to Filing a Utility Patent Application does for wannabe patentees; that is, it acts as a starting point, an unassuming collection of the facts essential to a basic understanding of the trademark process.

The USPTO did us all a favor by adopting a question-and-answer format for this brochure, and that, to me, is what makes it stand out among trademark informational brochures, of which there are many. Most of us who are using trademark informational brochures don't know the first thing about trademarks. Though we may have a specific question that brings us to the brochure, we may notice another question that we didn't even know we had. Intent to use? Tell me more! Also handy is the "trademark, patent, or copyright?" segment at the very beginning of the brochure, which can save the true new-comer the trouble of exploring the wrong avenues of intellectual property.

There's much more available from the agencies that you can access for free by visiting the USPTO and Copyright Office websites, or by stopping in to see us at the public library.