Intellectual Property Litigation
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure – The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (“FRCP”) are a set of rules that govern federal civil litigation in the district courts around the country. These rules are the foundation for our civil litigation system established to “secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action and proceeding.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 1.
Federal Rules of Evidence – Like the FRCP the Federal Rules of Evidence also govern proceedings in federal court at the district court level. These rules govern the introduction of evidence in both civil and criminal trials.
U.S. Code and Statutes – The United States Code and Statutes are the federal laws that govern our country. This is a resource where you can find the United States laws broken down by subject.
Federal Court Cases – This resource gives you the ability to look up the opinions that are written by the federal judges throughout our country. You can look up on this page written decisions by courts from the district court level (the federal trial level) up to the supreme court (the highest court in our country).
Pacer Federal Court Decision and Orders – This resource links to a website named Court Listener. Court Listener gives you the ability to monitor court opinions throughout the country. You can search for opinions or even set up alerts to notify you when something is happening in an area of the country that you would like to hear more about.
Model Patent Jury Instructions – The Model Patent Jury Instructions are a set of instructions that help explain the elements of patent the law in non-legalese. The intention of this set of instructions is to help juries properly decide issues specific to patent law in court. They are also a very useful source to look up any questions you have about the patent laws in our country.
CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA FEDERAL COURT – This resource is the Central District of California’s website. The Central District of California is venue for matters that take place in San Luis Obispo County, Santa Barbara County, Ventura County, Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County, and Riverside County.
Central District of California Federal Court Local Rules – This resource links to the local rules for the Central District of California. Every district court in this country has specific rules that are associated with their specific court. The local rules are a set of rules that you must follow when filing a case with your local district court.
Central District of California Judges’ Procedures and Schedules – In addition to the local rules, each judge has specific procedures that you must follow when you have a case before them. This resource links to the specific procedures for each judge in the Central District of California. You can also find the daily calendar and schedule on each judge’s specific page.
Master Calendar for All Central District Judges for Federal District Courts of California – This resource links to a master calendar that combines the daily schedule of all of the judges in the Central District of California. It is a good resource if you are looking to browse what is happening in the Central District as a whole on a specific day as opposed to a specific judge.
FEDERAL CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS (CAFC) – This webpage is where you can find information about the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC). The CAFC is the only court at the appellate-level that has patent law jurisdiction. In other words, if you have a case in the Central District of California that is a patent law matter, the court that would hear an appeal from that case would be the CAFC.
Rules of Practice & Procedure for CAFC – Just as the Central District has specific rules for cases that are heard in their court, so does the Federal Circuit. This link is a resource where you can find the local rules for hearing a case at the CAFC.
Practice Forms – This is a resource with templates and forms for different actions you may take at the CAFC. These forms are a great resource to help figure out how to properly format a document you need to file when litigating in at the CAFC.
Master Calendar for CAFC Cases – The master calendar for the CAFC lists the upcoming oral arguments for the court. This is a great resource to track new and upcoming cases in intellectual property law.
Opinions, Orders and Decisions by CAFC – This resource is a listing of opinions, orders, and decisions that have been issued by the CAFC. These decisions are designated as precedential and non-precedential opinions. If they are marked as precedential that means the decision is one that the lower district courts will follow in future decisions.
NINTH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS – The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is the appellate court for the Western United States. The Ninth Circuit has appellate jurisdiction over Alaska, Hawaii, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, and Arizona. The Ninth Circuit holds hearings in Anchorage Alaska, Honolulu Hawaii, Seattle Washington, Portland Oregon, San Francisco California, and Pasadena California.
Rules of Practice & Procedure with Practice Forms for Ninth Circuit – This page is a listing of the rules and procedures one must follow when litigating in front of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Opinions, Orders and Decisions by Ninth Circuit – This resource links to the decisions made by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The precedential decisions by the Ninth Circuit are followed lower district courts in the Ninth Circuit’s Jurisdiction. The Ninth Circuit’s jurisdiction is over Alaska, Hawaii, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, and Arizona.
Manual of Jury Trial Procedures – This manual focuses on the law, procedures, and practices of the Ninth Circuit governing jury trials. Jury trials are at the district court level, and even though the district courts of the Ninth Circuit are dispersed throughout every state in the western United States, this manual focuses on the procedures for the Ninth Circuit as a whole.
Ninth Circuit Jurisdiction Analysis – This resource is an outline intended to give you a starting point for research on a particular legal issue you may face in the Ninth Circuit. The outline gives examples and case summaries to help you begin your legal research. With that said this resource is only a starting point and should not be relied upon as a legal opinion.
Eleventh Circuit Civil and Criminal Pattern Jury Instruction Builder Tool – This is a useful tool for creating jury instructions unique to your case. If you are interested in compiling the basic rules for multiple different legal issues this is a good starting point. You can use this tool to learn the basics about issues you may face while trying to prove a case in the Eleventh Circuit.
4LawSchool Case Briefs and Resources – This resource will help both pre-law and law students with various things like case briefs and outlines for their coursework. Case briefs are a summary of a case that is intended to convey the main legal takeaway from a specific case without reading the entire lengthy opinion. Outlines are used as a summary of a subject as a whole and will contain sort snippets from cases to help understand what you need to know about specific topics in a subject.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION (ITC) – Section 337 Practice Guide for ITC Proceedings – Exclusion orders from the ITC can be powerful where there can be shown that a domestic industry will be harmed by the importation of infringing goods.
FASTCASE – Find various legal court decisions in various courts.
THE ROBING ROOM – The Robing Room is a site by lawyers for lawyers, providing a forum for evaluating federal district court judges and magistrate-judges.
GOOGLE SCHOLAR – Find articles on legal cases involving all different kinds of litigation or scholarly journals covering topics related to your intellectual property and litigation concerns.
LEXISWEB.COM – Legal research tools for searching court cases, law review articles and numerous other sources in an easy-to-use format, particularly good for researching patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, domain name and unfair competition law.
FEDERAL COURT JUDICIAL STATISTICS – This can be helpful when creating a motion to transfer, or determining how long it will take a complaint filed in the court to go to trial.
LOCAL COUNSEL FILING PACKAGE – For those attorneys in other parts of the U.S. and in different countries whose clients are being sued or need to bring suit in the Central District of California Federal Court on intellectual property claims, this helpful package provides everything necessary to use Cislo & Thomas LLP as local counsel.
OFFICER / DIRECTOR LISTINGS OF COMPANIES FOR POSSIBLE SERVICES – This tool provides names and addresses of officers of corporate defendants.
ONLINE DATABASE THAT CONTAINS INFORMATION ON CASES INVOLVING PATENT, TRADEMARK, AND COPYRIGHT LAW – Information about intellectual property cases filed in the United States.