Finding information about the law and ferreting out answers to legal questions is called legal research. If you have a question and can’t find the answer in a Nolo book on trademarks or the PTO’s website, you may want to do your own legal research.
When it comes to addressing such cutting-edge issues as domain name and trademark conflicts, the Web is the legal research tool of choice. This POST gives you an introduction to conducting legal research on the Web. You’ll follow these six steps:
1.Find and read the most relevant federal law (statutes).
2.Make sure the law you find is up to date.
3.Find and read relevant regulations issued by the PTO or other agency.
4.Find any court decisions that interpret the relevant statutes and regulations.
5.Read through summaries of the court decisions to find the most relevant case—one that deals with roughly the same facts and issues as your situation.
6.Make sure the court decisions you find are up-to-date.