Skip to Main Content

Researching Trademark & Unfair Competition Law

Introduction

In summer 2023, Attorney and BLS Library volunteer Grace Pickering and librarian Jean Davis developed this guide to assist students in Brooklyn Law School's Trademark and Unfair Competition course. 

BLS librarians continue to add new free and subscription sources.  When you access this guide in future, please reload this web page.  In guide boxes highlighting books, books appear in alphabetical order. This guide highlights these relatively new BLS subscription databases: Billboard, The Fashion Law and Center for Art Law > Case Review.  BLS now uses OpenAthens to support BLS students' remote access to many digital resources.  See: BLS Library Technology: Remote Access: Signing In. 

See also BLS Library's research guide: Art, Cultural Heritage & Law.  

Need help identifying material to support your research?  Email: askthelibrary@brooklaw.edu or text: (718) 734-2432

Selected Recent & Recently Updated Books on Trademark & Unfair Competition Law Available Through BLS Library

A Legal Strategist's Guide to Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Practice (c2025)

1 print copy (call #: KF3193 .L44 2025is available in the circulating Main collection.

Gilson on Trademarks (coverage through June 2025)

Treatise available in Lexis+. Excerpt from book description: "Comprehensive and current treatment of trademark law in the United States, with clear explanations of basic principles and expert discussion of complex issues."

McCarthy on Trademarks & Unfair Competition (w/ Sept. 2025 update)

Multi-volume, highly regarded treatise available in Westlaw + in print (call no. KF3180 .M15) in BLS Library's Main collection. (Print copy does not circulate.)

Milgrim on Trade Secrets (coverage through Sept. 2025)

Noted treatise on trade secrets available in Lexis+. Book description states that courts have frequently cited this treatise.

Trademark and Unfair Competition in a Nutshell (4th ed. forthcoming in Oct. 2025)

9/15/2025: BLS Library will purchase the revised 4th ed. of this study aid. 

Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure (May 2025)

Publicly accessible at U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's website. Excerpt from Manual's description: "The Manual is published to provide trademark examining attorneys in the USPTO, trademark applicants, and attorneys and representatives for trademark applicants with a reference work on the practices and procedures relative to prosecution of applications to register marks in the USPTO."

Trade Secret Law in a Nutshell (3rd ed. c2025)

1 print copy (call #: KF3197 .S26 2025) of this study aid is in BLS Library's first-floor Reserve collection.

Trade Secrets and Intellectual Property: Policy, Theory and Comparative Analysis (2nd ed. c2025)

9/15/2025: Ordered by BLS Library.

Excerpt from book description: "[P]roposes a nuanced analysis of: the competing theories that underlie trade secrets law, its theoretical justifications, and the varied doctrinal approaches found around the globe; the law in the US, the UK, France and Germany and the new EU Trade Secrets Directive; statute laws, international instruments, recent court decisions, and works of notable scholars in the field...."

Book Search Tips

Brooklyn Law School Library provides numerous sources on trademark and unfair competition law, including guides, treatises and law journals.

When searching the Library's SARA catalog for materials, some relevant keywords and subjects to search are:

  • Competition, Unfair
  • Intellectual property
  • Lanham Act
  • Trademarks - Law and legislation 
  • Trademark dilution
  • Trademark infringement
  • Trade secrets - Law and legislation

To expand a search to materials available in other libraries: WorldCat searches holdings of many research libraries throughout the world.   WorldCat's Advanced Search form supports searching by keywords, subject, title, author and many other criteria.