Thomson Derwent, a business of the Thomson Corporation, has announced that LitAlert–a database of value-added U.S. litigation affecting intellectual property — is now available on STN International (STN file name LITALERT). LitAlert records are created by the Thomson Derwent technical and editorial staff by collecting details from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) of patent and trademark infringement lawsuits filed in the 94 U.S.District courts, and then supplementing the records with additional details that assist researchers. LitAlert covers lawsuits filed since 1973 including thousands of suits filed since the early 1970’s, many of which were not reported in the Official Gazette.

Each LitAlert record contains the Docket Number of the case and bibliographic details that facilitate the identification of relevant material. In addition, the notes section of each record provides the filing date and court in which the case was heard, identifies the plaintiffs and defendants, and details the judgment (if applicable). LitAlert is updated weekly with all newly filed lawsuits received directly from the USPTO, and with the inclusion of cross-reference accession numbers, users can easily locate other related court cases.

(http://www.fiz-karlsruhe.de), (http://www.thomson.com), (http://www.thomsonscientific.com/litalert)