Government Agencies

Intellectual Property Rights Training Program Database. 2008. Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs of the U.S. Department of State. 28 Aug. 2008. http://www.training.ipr.gov/.

This is quite the site! I received a great deal of links from this database. This site was formed from the IPR Training Coordination Group which is responsible for offering information and training to professionals within the field. It also gives a great deal of information about TRIPs, which is Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. TRIPs is the worldwide agreement about the trading of products that are considered intellectual property. It states that countries owning the intellectual property in question are protected from losing their control of the property across foreign lands. Another thing I really like about this site is the fact that it also has many links to other sources for intellectual property. As a journalist, it is important to be able to view as many sources as possible, and this site is great for that.

United States Patent and Trademark Office. 25 Aug. 2008. The United States Department of Commerce. 28 Aug. 2008 http://uspto.gov/.

This was another great government site. The United States Patent and Trademark Office is the premier site to go to to find new breakthroughs and information in the field of intellectual property. This site shares all top news about governmental projects being undertaken. It is also the home for all documents and legislation within this field. I browsed through this site for a great amount of time and was amazed at the abundance of material available to the public. Anyone, from an IP lawyer to an average joe, can access this site and learn about patents, copyrights and trademarks. There are topics on here to show artists and inventors how to file for patents and copyrights on the site. I found this site very easy to navigate and recommend this site for any journalist looking to do some background research on this field.