The Handbook is an essential, up to date and highly practical resource that explains everything about intellectual property law to business lawyers, litigators, and business persons who need to understand patents, trademarks, copyrights, and other forms of intellectual property. Written by experienced practitioners and educators, the Handbook provides useful and fundamental knowledge that explains in an easy-to-digest way the fundamentals of this sometimes difficult topic. The Handbook serves as a concise research tool as well as a starting point for further analysis.

This Handbook includes:
Chapter 1: Patents
Chapter 2: Copyright
Chapter 3: Trade Secret Law: Maryland and Federal
Chapter 4: Right of Privacy (Publicity) Law: Maryland
Chapter 5: Trademarks
Table of Authorities, Cases, and Index

Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 2019
Pages: xvi, 246

Here is a summary of each chapter:

Chapter 1: Patents
The patent chapter provides an overview of the practices and process relating to obtaining, defending, and infringing U.S. patents. The chapter explains all the steps and requirements to obtain a U.S. patent and describes the different types of patents issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The chapter discusses patent rights as business assets, patent enforcement, including infringement actions, defenses and remedies, a benefit to all with an interest in patents.

Chapter 2: Copyright
The copyright chapter explores nearly all aspects of the law of copyrights and provides answers to many questions on the subject of copyrights to include: What is copyright? Where does copyright law come from and what place does it occupy in the American legal system? What works are protected by copyright? What is infringement and how is a copyright obtained? What rights do copyright owners have? What limitations affect the owner's rights including fair use? How are the owner's rights enforced? What monetary remedies are available for infringement? What is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act?

Chapter 3: Trade Secret Law: Maryland
The trade secret chapter summarizes the history, development, and current state of trade secret law in Maryland, and discusses the relatively new federal trade secret law. The discussion includes requirements for prevailing in a misappropriation action and available remedies for violation of the Maryland Uniform Trade Secrets Act and federal law. It provides an overview of statutes that often are also implicated when trade secrets issues arise, especially with the evolution of high tech industries, including the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Economic Espionage Act and the Defend Trade Secrets Act. The chapter also discusses emerging issues related to trade secrets, including the impact of social media, the doctrine of inevitable disclosure and First Amendment rights.

Chapter 4: Right of Privacy (Publicity) Law: Maryland
The right of publicity chapter discusses the origins and development of Maryland's right to privacy (publicity) law under the common law and compares it to the laws of other states. The chapter also discusses (1) right to privacy (publicity) law relating to celebrities, public figures, and military personnel; (2) postmortem right of privacy (publicity) laws and legislative efforts in Maryland related to right of privacy (publicity) law; (3) a comparison of right of privacy (publicity) laws with copyright and trademark laws; and (5) right to privacy (publicity) litigation.

James B. Astrachan, Editor
Contributing Authors: Eric B. Easton, Peter H. Gunst, Elizabeth Harlan, Brian Wm. Higgins, Ned T. Himmelrich, Hon. Julie R. Rubin, Lawrence M. Sung

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