Jon Cavicchi

FACULTY FELLOW | FRANKLIN PIERCE CENTER FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
FACULTY ADVISOR | IDEA - LAW REVIEW OF THE FRANKLIN PIERCE CENTER FOR IP
FACULTY COORDINATOR | VISITING SCHOLARS PROGRAM
REPRESENTATIVE| USPTO PATENT TRADEMARK RESOURCE CENTER
COPYRIGHTS PERMISSION OFFICER : UNH LAW ACADEMIC JOURNALS

Professor Cavicchi is the chief administrator of intellectual property information resources at the University of New Hampshire School of Law Intellectual Property Library. He presently teaches Mining Patent Information and Legal Research and Information Literacy: Patent Law. In recognition of his expertise in the intellectual property research field, Professor Cavicchi was chosen to sit on the Advisory Board of QUESTEL/ORBIT, a key information producer for patent professionals. He is co-architect of the UNH Law Information Literacy Plan – the only such Faculty adopted plan at any law school in the U.S..

'Having practiced civil, criminal and administrative law, in settings ranging from law firms to Legal Service offices, both in California and Massachusetts for nearly a decade, I came to realize that administration, research and teaching were a way for me to grow intellectually and help people.

'I was thrilled to be able to return to Franklin Pierce Law Center in 1992 to serve as Computer Research Coordinator and to teach Legal Research. I became fascinated with intellectual property and began to take courses leading to the Master of Laws, Intellectual Property degree. I developed a portfolio of specialty advanced courses covering intellectual property legal research, patent, trademark and copyright searching. In 1994, the Law Center, having consistently earned a position as one of the top intellectual property training centers in the country, made the commitment to build an intellectual property library – an information center to serve the Law Center community as well as practitioners, academics, business-persons, licensing professionals and inventors.

'I was hired as the first Intellectual Property Librarian to develop and deliver information services, and was appointed to the Intellectual Property Faculty to teach the power of these information sources. My courses teach the power of information and how to evaluate the many sources. Lawyers, IP professionals and businesses best with quality information-from the state of the law to the state of the art. There is a life cycle to all branches of intellectual property; from prosecution to litigation as well as the business transitions that involve patents, trademarks and copyrights. All phases of the life cycle are dependent on quality information. Researchers often drown in information from open access and premium services. I teach my students how to find the multiple access points to intellectual property data and how to evaluate what they find.”

As the author Richard Wurman observed some time ago: "One of the great ironies of the information age is that as the technology of delivering data becomes more sophisticated, the possibility that intellectual property professionals can process it all becomes more remote. It is as if we are at one end of an assembly line that is cranking out data at an alarming rate, and the machine has no off button. Raw data can be, but isn't necessarily information, and unless it can be made to inform, it has no inherent value. Understanding lags behind production. What has been virtually untapped is the understanding business. Understanding is the bridge between data and knowledge."

'My goal is to bridge that gap in order to produce intellectual property professionals who have a competitive advantage. Honing information-processing skills will help us all tackle difficult research problems in more successful ways.'