Thomson CompuMark, part of the Intellectual Property & Science business of Thomson Reuters and the global leader in trademark searching and brand protection solutions, announced a partnership with Darts-ip, a unique service provider of trademark case law data, at the International Trademark Association (INTA) annual meeting today. IP professionals using the SERION® Search Analysis and Watch tools will soon be able to conveniently access case law information as a seamless part of their workflow, further enabling them to protect brands from infringement.

“Ensuring our customers have the information they need to make real-time brand decisions is of the utmost importance to us,” said Martin Burke, managing director of Thomson CompuMark. “As the world’s leading trademark solutions provider, Thomson CompuMark is pleased to offer trademark professionals impressive, relevant and accessible brand case law information through our partnership with Darts-ip.”

Users of the SERION search, watch and analysis platform from Thomson CompuMark will have the opportunity to view summary-level case law data from within a search or watch report. They can then opt to access more detailed data, provided by Darts-ip, via a convenient hyperlink. Relevant litigation information will be categorized by trademark and verbal similarity, class and owner.

“It was an easy decision to partner with Thomson CompuMark given its leadership position in the trademark space,” said Jean-Jo Evrard, partner, Darts-ip. “As a leading provider of trademark case law information, our goal is to help IP professionals determine brand risk and availability and to make our information available in premier solutions such as the SERION platform.”

To learn more about the European trademark case law information available through Thomson CompuMark, stop by booth # 123 at INTA, the International Trademark Association Annual Meeting, taking place in Washington D.C. through May 9, 2012. Or, visit: http://trademarks.thomsonreuters.com/contact-us-form.

A group representing authors in a copyright case slammed Google in court on Thursday, saying the company’s book-scanning project has hurt millions of authors whose works have been digitized.

The Authors Guild is seeking class-certification status for its claims case in order to represent all copyright holders in the U.S whose books have been scanned by Google as part of its Library Project. Around 20 million books have already been digitized by Google since the project started in 2004, and the guild is seeking minimum statutory damages for the authors it wants to represent.

The case brought by the authors was filed in 2005 and is one of three separate lawsuits tied to Google’s book-scanning program. Groups representing publishers and photographers also claim that Google has infringed copyrights via the Library program, in which digital copies of scanned public domain and in-copyright books from participating libraries are stored on Google servers and are searchable via its search engine. Google presents only snippets of in-copyright books, while public-domain books are fully accessible.

Google is asking the court to dismiss the authors’ case, saying the group does not represent the copyrights owned by individual authors or publishers. Google maintains that it is not violating copyright law, and that its actions are protected by the “fair use” principle, which allows for reproduction of limited copyrighted material without permission.

The authors filed a document requesting class-action certification in December last year after a proposed settlement between Google and the authors and publishers was rejected by the judge earlier in the year.

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E-book consumers’ preference for tablets is accelerating rapidly as dedicated e-readers drop in popularity, according to the Book Industry Study Group’s (BISG) closely watched Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading survey. The second installment in Volume Three of the study shows that, over the course of just six months, consumers’ “first choice” preference for dedicated e-readers such as those from Amazon and Barnes & Noble declined from 72 percent to 58 percent. Tablet devices are now the most preferred reading device for more than 24 percent of e-book buyers, up from less than 13 percent in August 2011. Further, the increase in tablet preference was not primarily for Apple’s iPad (which rose by just over one percent), but for non-Apple tablets – overwhelmingly from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. These non-Apple devices increased from five percent to 14 percent over the same period.

“The movement from dedicated e-readers to multi-function tablet devices is an important one for publishers to understand, as it allows them to deliver a richer, more interactive e-book experience,” said Angela Bole, BISG’s Deputy Executive Director. “One of the strengths of this study is that it can plot such evolution, preparing publishers for what e-book readers want and expect from them next.”

The Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading study, powered by Bowker® Market Research, points to a buoyant book market. Nearly 30 percent of respondents in the February 2012 survey reported an increase in dollars spent on books in all formats since they began acquiring e-books, while nearly 50 percent reported an overall increase in the volume of titles purchased in any format. The numbers are even rosier for the e-book market: more than 62 percent of respondents reported an increase in dollars spent on e-books, and more than 72 percent said they have increased the volume of e-titles they are buying. Some publishers are reporting that even when overall revenue has declined, profitability—particularly for e-books—has increased.

In addition to “Power Buyers” (those who acquire e-books at least weekly), this report looks at the behavior of “Casual Buyers,” who purchase one or two books a month. The study reveals that this second generation of e-book and e-reader adopters is catching up with Power Buyers in a number of ways. More than 27 percent of Casual Buyers now exclusively purchase e-books rather than print, compared to 30 percent of Power Buyers. Further, Casual Buyers are only slightly more likely to play games you can win real money with (37 percent versus 35 percent) or watch video content (23 percent vs. 21 percent) on their devices. However, Casual Buyers lag significantly behind Power Buyers on the uptake of multi-function devices. Only half of Casual Buyers use a tablet regularly, compared to 83 percent of Power Buyers.

Since November 2009, Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading has been tracking the habits and preferences of print book consumers who say they have acquired an e-book or a dedicated e-reading device within the past 18 months. Volume Three is sponsored by Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, and Harlequin. In addition to quarterly PDF Summary Reports, Volume Three of Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading is published as a dynamic online report via Real-Time Reporting: a unique web-based tool set displaying the raw data derived from responses – drillable, sortable with on-demand accessibility.

Data for Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading was derived from a nationally representative panel of book consumers (men, women and teens). Each month a new group of 3,000 respondents complete surveys about their book purchasing behavior for Bowker Market Research. Out of nearly 65,000 possible panelists drawn from the last 18 months, respondents were qualified for the BISG e-book survey by indicating they had either purchased a “digital book or e-book”” or owned a dedicated e-reader device (such as Kindle, NOOK, or Sony Reader). This process yielded a survey sample of more than 1,000 e-book consumers.

The survey findings are available for sale both as a PDF Summary Report and as a complete data compendium, accessible online. A substantial discount is available for BISG members. For more information, or to order a copy of Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading, visit www.bisg.org/publications/product.php?p=19&c=437.