UHLC Nota Bene

As I explained at the beginning of my first ever Lexis Advance post , I am a former employee of LexisNexis. However, as I tried to explain at the end of my third post (the conclusion of the initial series) , I do not consider myself a "disgruntled former employee" as that phrase is typically used. Indeed, my passion for attacking Lexis Advance stems entirely from my passion for lexis.com. I love lexis.com!! And yet, from the first mention of Lexis Advance, many LexisNexis representatives and employees have explicitly stated that the plan is to "retire" lexis.com once they’ve rolled Lexis Advance out to all segments of the legal market. "It's All Part of the Plan (Even If the Plan Is Horrifying!)" That stands repeating and clarifying: Once Lexis Advance has been rolled out to everyone (regardless of whether "everyone" wants it or not, or even whether it actually satisfies the legal research needs of its users), they will pull the plug on le...

I have a bit of good news for the good people at Lexis Advance: This will be my penultimate post on Lexis Advance. Good or bad, right or wrong, after my posts this week, I will refuse to write blog posts regarding this currently unsatisfactory, inadequate, and unacceptable excuse for a legal search tool. I can't guarantee that one or more of my co-workers won't pick up the mantle and write future posts regarding Lexis Advance, but I will not. In fact, I had hoped that my last post on Lexis Advance would have been my last, but another librarian has offered yet another glowing, albeit superficial, review of Lexis Advance that demands a response. "We Should Encourage Citations to Wikipedia! And While We're at It, Let's Ignore the Bluebook, Too!" I don’t know about you, but that heading sounds absolutely crazy to me! And yet, that is the gist of every one of the positive reviews of Lexis Advance (and, to some degree, WestlawNext as well). As the latest Lexis ...

The  website of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has gone through quite some changes since David Kappos became its Director in 2009.  One of the changes is the addition of the Director's Forum: David Kappos' Public Blog .  While blog posts have not been added frequently (e.g. four in August, five in September, three in October, and insofar one in November), almost all of them are on meaningful developments and readable even to general public.  For example: on August 2, 2012 the blog introduced the  Global Dossier Initiative  and the idea was explained in plain English.  On September 14, 2012 there was the announcement  on the former Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences becoming the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) two days later.  No doubt that we can find all these changes in the Federal Register, but who would not want to hear ...

Last week, the Texas Supreme Court approved for the first time an official set of forms that may be used for individuals filing for divoerce in Texas without requiring the assistance of a lawyer. Once Texas has formally adopted the forms, it will join 48 other states that already have some standardized family law forms in place. The forms, intended for pro se couples with no minor children or real property are specifically aimed at indigent couples who do not have the resources to obtain legal assistance in their divorce matter. With this ruling the Texas Suprme Court recognizes the extent to which low-income Texans are underserved by the legal community, noting that even if every member of the state bar's family law section were to take on one of these family cases pro bono, tens of thousands would remain unserved. Not all of the Texas Supreme Court Justices agreed, with two justices dissenting (another two dissenting in part) out of fear that these forms will inadvertently crea...

Is Batman a state actor for constitutional law purposes? Can the IRS tax Superman for squeezing coal into diamonds and not paying taxes? Can Ben Grimm sue Reed Richards for turning him into The Thing?   Important legal questions like these are addressed in one of the library’s newest books The Law of Superheroes by James Daily and Ryan Davidson.  The Law of Superheroes takes a large chunk of the law, including Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Evidence, Tort, and Administrative Law and applies it to the “facts” of the world of comic book superheroes and supervillains with interesting results. Super-characters have all sorts of adventures and applying legal analysis to those adventures makes for not only interesting context but is also instructive in teaching how the law works. I ask you, isn’t analyzing Superman’s immigration status (he’s an alien!) more interesting than reading some dry old Supreme Court case on immigration? While this volume is not a marriage of c...

What is “prior art” and why am I looking for it?   To be granted a patent the invention in question must be “novel”, that is it must be new. Prior art is, at its most basic, any description of the invention published prior to applying for a patent. The revelation of prior art would defeat the application for a patent or render a patent invalid.   Searching for prior art, or patent searching, is not an easy thing to do; the patent classification system is not intuitive and it must be remembered that the kinds of things you are searching for are often described in highly technical language and the search may require going beyond previously filed patents.   As I said, patent searching is hard and searchers don’t always discover the existence of prior art. Add to this the fact that in patent litigation there is a lot of money at stake so the discovery of prior art is a very valuable thing. In an attempt to overcome the difficulty of searching a company named Article ...

  The U.S. Government Printing Office and the Office of the Federal Register recently launched the Presidential Documents App .   It provides mobile access to materials from the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents including executive orders, speeches, statements, White House press releases, and more. Users can search for documents by date, category, subject, or location.   This mobile web app is compatible with most mobile device platforms such as iOS and Android.   For more information and to access the app, visit the Apps.USA.gov page for the app.

Today is Election Day!   After months and months of campaigning, it is almost over.   Candidates and political commentators are making their predictions and running scenarios based on the latest polling data , but there are some other more unique ways to predict who will win the presidential election tonight.   The Houston Chronicle has compiled a list of 10 (less scientific) methods such as the Redskins Rule, the 7-Eleven cup election, and the Baskin-Robbins ice cream race that may be able to give you a little more insight into what might happen tonight.    Check out the list to see which candidate is going to win, and if you need last minute information about voting, see the VoteTexas.gov website.