A groundbreaking legal case was the big news for social media law this past week. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that it is generally OK for employees to criticize or question their bosses on social networking sites. This ruling has prompted many questions from the blogosphere this week, and our roundup will focus [...]

We have recently been fielding requests for patent term adjustments on various platforms: Westlaw, Thomson Innovation, Delphion. Currently , there is no way to search adjustments on Thomson Innovation or Delphion. The information does not not appear in the integrated view on these platforms. The adjustment language pursuant to 154(b) is contained in the original PDF image [...]

Bookmark this page and return daily through Nov. 12! Each day this week (Nov. 8-12), you’ll find a new activity. Complete today’s Knowledgeable challenge, and eligible participants will earn a free password from the suite of Westlaw Litigator tools* Complete today’s Genius challenge to help feed America’s hungry with a Thomson Reuters donation to Feeding America* $25 donation in your name, [...]

Several stories have noted that the amount of money spent on this year’s election will easily break the previous record for money spent on a midterm election . Not only are the candidates themselves spending freely, but outside groups have also been pouring money into the election like never before. One reason for the increase in spending [...]

The single most frequent question we get about patent research is how to determine if an individual patent has been involved in litigation. While you might search for the patent number in the dockets database (DOCK-FED-ALL), this search only pulls those dockets in which the actual title of a docket entry includes the patent number—something that rarely [...]

In the latest Round-Up, we provide you with links to stories that will all heed the same warning:

Be careful what you post on social media venues! Your opinions will become public, and could be used in the courts.

The following links will explain how a student’s tongue-in-cheek tweet about a judge turned into a restraining order, demonstrate [...]

Since the U.S. owes British courts for the much of its common law, it is refreshing to see the British take a page from our book. For better – or for worse – it appears that a common American legal tool is gaining in importance in British courts – The Pre-Nuptial Agreement . According to the New York [...]

A Connecticut judge has refused to admit evidence regarding the comparative cost to the state of life imprisonment versus the death penalty . The decision came prior to the penalty phase of the trial of Steven Hayes, the first of two individuals scheduled to be tried for a much-publicized 2007 multiple murder. According to reports of the decision, [...]

A lot of times we receive calls from customers who are having difficulty pulling up foreign (particularly Asian) patents, even when they have a correct patent number. This is often a result of the fact that Asian countries sometimes use a format that is not shared by western countries. For example, in western countries Taiwanese [...]

Big Brother is watching and the blogosphere is curious.  As we were going through a list of hot topics in social media this week, we noticed several articles were posted about legal issues that involve government agencies, or officials involved with surveillance, privacy, monitoring, or general use of social media. This Round-up will include stories [...]

At least once a week, I’m fielding questions concerning FRCP 8 , FRCP 12(b)(6) , and Twombly/Iqbal. The Twombly and Iqbal decisions have sometimes been considered a thorn in the side of Plaintiff attorneys as well as some courts the past few years. See this news search: (plaintiff /7 attorney lawyer counsel /250 twombly iqbal & pleading plaus!) & da(last 3 [...]

From the West eLearning Center’s Webinar Series for Legal Experts, here are the slides for “Research History & Folders” conducted in September, 2010:

View all the Questions & Answers from this series.

Is it okay to post that you received a bonus at work on your personal network? This week’s Social Media Round-up includes advice on what to not write on personel sites, legal  implications of google searching for prospective employees, and proof that big brother is watching. From – Las Vegas Review-Journal Being too chatty on social networking sites can cause [...]

This week’s Round-up includes ways to find evidence on social media platforms, emerging presence in workers compenastion cases, embarrassing Facebook photos and regrettable MySpace statements, doctors resisting new media ideas, and discovery best practices. From JD Supra: Social Media and Electronic Discovery: Riches and Risks Taken from the Second Annual Intermountain Discovery Conference on 9.24.10, this presentation shares [...]

Social Media is effecting how many of our clients are conducting business and sharing information. The legal issues arising from such diverse interactions are brand new and constantly changing.  We are always looking for new cases, hot topics and interesting perspectives as they relate to Social Media Law and will share them here. From Hildebrandt [...]

This question came in this week from one of our  Twitter followers :   Q:  What about limiting search results by type of case? I’d love to get rid of criminal cases in my search results. Since we weren’t sure if the Twitter follower was asking about Westlaw or WestlawNext, we asked Reference Attorney Tom Perusse to provide answers for [...]

The recent Ninth Circuit decision in the Stossel defamation case as well as the Sherrod situation has brought a recent influx of questions on libel and slander. The Stossel decision has potential impact on the Sherrod case as discussed in this Wall Street Journal Law Blog article. The Reuter’s article on the Stossel decision is here. The Ninth Circuit’s appellate decision [...]

From the West eLearning Center’s Webinar Series for Legal Experts, here are the slides for “KeyCite on WestlawNext” conducted on August 30th, 31st and September 2nd, 2010:

View all the Questions & Answers from this series

Next.Notes, a monthly e-newsletter devoted exclusively to WestlawNext, is now available.  You can sign up before the next issue! Just go to the Next.Notes landing page at west.thomson.com and give us your name and e-mail address. Next.Notes is a free monthly e-mail newsletter that provides feature descriptions, content updates, search tips, and other information to introduce Westlaw users to [...]

New features and benefits of version 2.0 include the following: integration with WestlawNext —make connections among the law, facts, and evidence in your case powerful new characters functionality —easily see all the case information connected to people and entities outlines—build outlines and add hypertext links to case information for depositions, trials, and more transcript summaries —efficiently create transcript summaries for faster turnaround [...]