Monthly Archives: August 2017

PLI’s New Guide to Financial Services Mediation!

Did you know that Mediation Can Be a Powerful Tool for In-House Counsel? Check out the interview below with the editors of PLI’s new Financial Services Mediation Answer Book (2017 Edition) .

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Financial Services Mediation Answer Book is available on PLI PLUS, our online research database. If you’d like to order a print copy, please email libraryrelations@pli.edu or call 877-900-5291.

Meet Our AALL 2017 Raffle Winner: James Wirrell

2017AALLRaffleWinnerAt the AALL Annual Meeting & Conference in Austin this year, PLI raffled off a $1,000 AmericanExpress gift card. James Wirrell, Assistant Dean for Library Sciences at McGeorge School of Law at University of the Pacific, was our lucky winner. Check out our interview with James below!

Tell me a little about yourself. Why did you become a librarian?

I am originally from the Vancouver area in Canada and attended law school there. After meeting an American (who I am now married to), I did my third year as a visiting student at Hastings in San Francisco. As an international student, the only place I could work at Hastings was in the library. While working in the library and interacting with the law librarians, I decided that this was the career for me. After Hastings, I attended both library school and law school again at the University of Illinois. I am now a citizen of both the US and Canada and have worked in law libraries at the University of Illinois, the University of Richmond and the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law.

What do you like most about your job at University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law?

As the director of the law library, I enjoy working with everyone on my staff to provide the best possible service to the law school in as efficient a manner as possible. Budgets are an issue for us, and I like to be able to give our school and its students good value for the money. I enjoy working with people and with making a positive contribution in this world.

What is the most common research question you receive?

Our research questions are becoming increasingly complex and involve multi-faceted research projects. Typically, the research questions we now face are ones that the users were not able to solve for themselves using the basic search tools in the common electronic databases. As such, the questions we now get require us to go outside of the usual channels to find the answers.

Which PLI publication do you most frequently recommend to students?

One of our leading professors has an interest in alternative dispute resolution. Accordingly, we have referred students to American Arbitration: Principles and Practice.

What did you think of AALL 2017? Did you do any sightseeing in Austin?

I always enjoy the networking at AALL with both fellow law librarians, but also with vendors. This year I was particularly excited by the pre-conference workshop I attended on the new academic law library data collection platform, ALLStAR. My wife accompanied me and we did some walking around the city and took in some art galleries and the Texas state capitol. She also came to see the AALL Exhibit Hall once and was given a red PLI bag which she decided was the very best swag given out at the conference. We also were able to spend a couple of nights after the conference visiting some friends who live in greater Austin.

How do you plan on using your AmEx gift card?

Good question! I haven’t thought too much about it. I tend to be more of a saver than a spender. I think I will earmark the value and use it down the road to be a bit more adventurous with new technology and mobile phone upgrades.

Thank you, James! And congratulations!

New Update! Faber on Mechanics of Patent Claim Drafting (7th Edition)

Release #4 is now available for Faber on Mechanics of Patent Claim Drafting (7th Edition)

Faber Patent Claim Drafting 7th ED“This work must be included in the library of anyone who considers himself or herself an attorney [in the field].” – The Licensing Journal

A trusted working tool for more than two decades, Faber on Mechanics of Patent Claim Drafting spotlights proven claim drafting practices and techniques that have been firmly established by patent authorities and custom. Faber on Mechanics of Patent Claim Drafting provides full coverage of U.S. Supreme Court and other court decisions critical to claim drafting. It is an indispensable guide for patent specialists and other intellectual property attorneys, corporate counsel, patent agents, patent officials, and inventors.  Among the topics covered in the recently updated book are the following:

  • Patent eligibility—computer-related claims: Several recent Federal Circuit opinions emphasize that patent claims directed to data processing or pure software can be patent-eligible. Software modifications that improve functioning or capacity of a known system are generally patent-eligible. This applies to improvements in computer functionality or solving technology-based problems, even with conventional generic components when combined in an unconventional manner. It is recommended to disclose and discuss the practical benefits of the claim in the specification. The differences from the art, the technological improvement, and the reasons for this may convert what appears to be known technology into something patent-eligible. See 1:5.5, at note 88.3.
  • “Visually negligible”: Words of approximation are not restricted to words like “about,” “approximately,” and “substantially.” The Federal Circuit held that “visually negligible” was definite because the specification provided examples of visually negligible indicators, namely an objective baseline to determine what is visually negligible based on what can be seen by the normal human eye, and neither the examiners nor the experts during prosecution and reexamination had apparent difficulty determining the scope of this term (Sonix Technology Co. v. Publications International, Ltd.). See § 3:19, at note 389.1.
  • Claims in continuing applications—claim construction: According to the Federal Circuit, where more than one patent derives from, that is claims priority to, a common parent, construction of the same claim in two or more of those patents should be the same, since they are all based off the same disclosure and specification (Trustees of Columbia University v. Symantic Corp.). See § 5:5, at note 43.1.

The updated Treatise is available on PLI PLUS, our online research database.  If you’d like to order a print copy, please email libraryrelations@pli.edu or call 877-900-5291.

2017 Edition – Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act Answer Book

 

FATCA Answer Book_NWForeign Account Tax Compliance Act Answer Book (2017 Edition) provides a detailed analysis of requirements with which U.S. taxpayers with overseas accounts must comply.

Written and edited by Matthew D. Lee (Fox Rothschild LLP), this question-and-answer guide walks the reader through every aspect of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) requirements. The book explains FATCA terms and concepts, identifies which foreign financial institutions (FFIs) are covered by the Act (over 155,000) and which countries (over 100) have signed, or indicated their willingness to sign, bilateral tax treaties with the United States (called Intergovernmental Agreements), and describes the obligations placed upon FFIs under the Act.

Additionally, Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act Answer Book provides guidance on how to create an acceptable compliance program and what is required to register as a foreign financial institution.

This new edition is available on PLI PLUS, our online research database. If you’d like to order a print copy, please email libraryrelations@pli.edu or call 877-900-5291.