eSignature Legality for Assignment of Intellectual Property in United Kingdom

How to eSign a document: eSignature legality for Assignment of intellectual property in United Kingdom

hi everyone this quick video will showcase some intellectual property research tips on lexis plus my name is tim brahms and i am a research attorney with lexisnexis i've been with lexis for 18 years and prior to that i practiced as a patent attorney in pittsburgh working on patent trademark and copyright issues let's head over to lexis plus so we can get started today we will take a look at a day in the life of a busy intellectual property associate and learn how the tools and resources lexis plus can make that associate's life a little bit easier we will specifically look at these issues we'll take a look at declaratory judgments within the context of patent litigation we will look at filing state and federal trademark applications and we will also take a look at copyright assignments let's start with declaratory judgments in patent litigation a partner stops by your office in the morning and hands you a cease and desist letter that was just received accusing one of the firm's clients of patent infringement and threatening imminent litigation the partner remarks that she looked over the patented issue and she is almost certain there are no infringement issues she asks you to look into the possibility of filing a declaratory judgment action you have never looked at declaratory judgments before especially in the context of patent law so you're basically starting from scratch and when you're starting from scratch a great place to begin is a secondary source we're going to get some help today from one of our great matthew bender treatises and to do that let's scroll down to the explore pod and let's click the practice area tab when that comes up scroll a bit further down and click the link to view our practice centers so the practice centers are great they are basically pages that put all the tools in one place for jurisdictional research as you can see here or practice area research as you can see here and this is perfect because there's one for patent law so we'll click that and when that practice center comes up let's try to find a section for secondary sources so we'll scroll down and there it is right there and there's actually a subsection for litigation perfect we'll click that link and let's look at horowitz on patent litigation a really great matthew bender treatise covering all sorts of areas in patent litigation and when you click that link it takes you to the table of contents let's just search the tocs you can click that radio button and we can search for declaratory judgment just like that we'll do that in quotation marks we're looking for the exact phrase let's see what horowitz has to say on this quite a bit there's three sections here and if you look at the bottom there's many other pages you can go to but i think section one's the place to begin that's the general discussion of declaratory judgments you can click on that and as you'll see when you're starting from scratch a secondary source is really wonderful because it's very simple it's straightforward it's easy to understand it's going to quickly get you up to speed on declaratory judgments in patent law you can read this section you can learn all about it and one thing you'll learn for example is that if you are first and you file a declaratory judgment you can pick your own jurisdiction you can file in your home court which would be much more convenient for you than litigating somewhere else so you'll read all about this you'll start a memo for the partner but don't forget about the footnotes the annotation so for example you've got a number three here you can click that link that drops you down to the annotation secondary sources have annotations and these are great these are showing you additional cases you may want to check out maybe some federal statutes to check out and these are all items that you might also want to review and include in the memo to the partner and when you're done you can click a corresponding up arrow which takes you back to the text you can keep reading and you can get this memo all set so you work on the memo and just as you're finishing another partner stops in he gives you the file for a federal trademark application that is prepared and ready to file he asks you to double check everything to be sure the application is 100 ready for filing with the uspto and he also asks you while you're at it to prepare and file corresponding state trademark applications in north carolina in new mexico so you'll notice i went back home by clicking on the lexis plus logo and now we're going to move over to our practical guidance tool so we'll click that link over on the left you'll know you're there because the screen is now blue and we can scroll down to look at the different practice areas and there is one for ip and technology there it is you can click on that and there is a section if you look at the tasks on the left there is a section covering trademarks wonderful we'll click that plus sign we'll open that up and this is exactly what we need a subsection covering trademark registration you can click that link and when the next screen comes up if you scroll down you'll notice there is a section that has just what you need which would be checklists and flow charts and things like that and there is a checklist for trademark applications sounds pretty good to me we'll click on that up comes this really nice checklist you can review this and sort of go down the list and make sure you've got everything set a couple things i want to point out over on the right this checklist is authored by an actual attorney peter sloan a practicing ip attorney if you would click peter's name you could learn more about him and read his bio and things like that and also if you hover over the maintained link you will see the last time this was updated fairly current it was last updated in march so it's been less than a year since this was refreshed which is great so you take a look at this you've got that part all set now we can go back to the practical guidance home screen by clicking the lexis plus logo and now we can tackle this state trademark issue so we've got two states to look at north carolina and new mexico and so that is a perfect opportunity to use our state law comparison tool which is over on the right from the practical guidance home screen so you can click that state lock comparison tool and this is so simple to use you basically make a few choices and you get a really nice report so we're going to pick a practice area of intellectual property and technology then for the topic if you take a look at that list there is one for trademark registration great we'll pick that then we pick our jurisdictions well here they are new mexico and north carolina we'll pick those two we'll hit the continue button and you get a final section which has you pick the questions you want to look into and actually several of these would be good but let's start with the second one which sounds really good which basically is what are the state's procedures for filing trademark applications all right we'll check that box we'll scroll down we'll create the report and you get this screen where you can choose the format and then download your report and it'll pop up on the screen i'm not going to do that right now but you can do that and you'll see that you've got a great pdf or a great spreadsheet that has all the information you need for filing and registering trademarks in north carolina and new mexico including as you'll see links to the statutes and regulations and things like that so that's perfect and you'll get exactly what you need to handle the rest of that partner's task we'll go back home to the practical guidance tool and we'll tackle the last task for the day you need to draft a copyright assignment for one of your clients so we'll stick with practical guidance we'll scroll down and click on intellectual property and technology again and this time you'll notice there is a section for copyrights perfect we'll click the plus sign next to that and assignments would fall under copyright counseling and transactions so we'll click that link and there's actually two really great sections that we should look at here one would be in the templates section and you'll notice there's an actual copyright assignment link which essentially takes you to a form that's really what these templates are they're forms again drafted by our attorney authors that you can essentially start filling in right here online notice that sometimes there's extra notes that explain some of these sections sometimes there's other clauses you can swap in if you like them better and then when you're ready to actually download this you can do that with these links in the upper left hand corner and then you can continue to edit it in word for example and get this all set so that is one item to show and then the other one we go back the other one you'll notice was a section of checklists if you scroll down to the checklists box there also is a copyright assignment checklist which again you can look at just to make sure that you've got everything covered for this assignment as you put the finishing touches and you do that and you're done for the day you can finally go home so thank you so much for tuning into this video i hope you found it helpful if you want to learn more or if you need research assistance please reach out to your lexus team to schedule a training session or contact our wonderful customer support department 24 hours a day seven days a week at one eight hundred four five alexis and don't forget check out the other videos on the lexus nexus law school youtube channel thank you