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CMLawLibraryBlog

The CM Law Library Blog seeks to inform the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law community about key legal education, research, practice, and law library news, with a particular focus on Cuyahoga County and Ohio as well as faculty research interests.

Bow Wow Infringement

Laura E. Ray, Educational Programming Librarian, laura.ray@law.csuohio.edu | November 24, 2009 - 17:41

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently ruled that George Clinton's classic 1982 funk song Atomic Dog was willfully infringed by D.O.G. in Me, a song on Public Announcement's All Work, No Play album, released by A&M Records in 1998. The case is Bridgeport Music Inc. v. UMG Recordings Inc., and you may have seen news of the decision if you're signed up for email notices from BNA's U.S. Law Week or Patent Trademark & Copyright Journal. [See the Law Library's Electronic Resources Web page.] Why Bridgeport and UMG? Clinton and his colleagues transferred their Atomic Dog composition rights to Bridgeport years ago, and A&M was acquired by UMG (ie, Universal Music Group) in 1999. One of the key issues for this case were the use of the phrase "bow wow wow, yippie yo, yippie yea." Citing Murray Hill Publications Inc. v. ABC Communications Inc., the court found the "bow wow" phrase to be "as readily recognizable in terms of its relationship ... as 'E.T. phone home' is to its movie source'" ... and "the copying of a relatively small but qualitatively important or crucial element can be an appropriate basis upon which to find substantial similarity."


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Xyggy - Free Search Engine Finds Similar Cases

Sue Altmeyer, Electronic Services Librarian, sue.altmeyer@law.csuohio.edu | November 24, 2009 - 16:18

Enter a case by citation or party name into Xyggy Legal and get a list of similar cases in ranked order. If you enter more than one case, the search engine will determine what those cases have in common and return even more precise results. It does not necessarily pull up cases that have cited the case you type in, but searches the text and metadata to attempt to find similar cases.

The idea is somewhat similar to More Like this Headnote in Lexis or doing a natural language search in Lexis or Westlaw by cutting and pasting a block of text from a case.

Currently, Xyggy covers:

  • Supreme Court decisions in US. Reports volumes 1 - 544,
  • Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal in F.2d, volumes 178 - 999, and F.3d vol. 1 - 491

Xyggy is still in beta, and hopes to improve coverage of recent cases. There is also a Xyggy patent to find similar patents. Thanks to Out of the Jungle Blogspot.

I tried Xyggy Legal and I felt I did not get good results until I added more cases to the search box. I searched for Furman v. Georgia, 408 US 238

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CALI DVDs for Law Students

Laura E. Ray, Educational Programming Librarian, laura.ray@law.csuohio.edu | November 24, 2009 - 14:44

Cleveland-Marshall College of Law students can pick up a free CALI Lessons DVD in the Law Library, at the Information Services Desk or in the Law Library Law Student Lounge. The DVD can come in handy for times when you don't have access to the Web, but really need to study with a CALI Lesson. There are over 600 CALI Lessons - in traditional outline, self-paced tutorial, and podcast formats - that teach basic lawyering skills and instruct students on how to prepare for classes and take exams. It's getting close to that time, so students may want to take a look at the Exam Taking Skills, Outlines, and Advice for Law Students, Panel 1 & Panel 2 podcasts, as well as the Tips for Multiple Choice Exams in Law School podcast, Top 10 Tips for Successfully Writing a Law School Essay lesson, and Writing Better Law School Exams: The Importance of Structure lesson. The CALI DVD is one thing to be thankful for this semester!


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