The Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property was founded in Bern in 1888. It is the Federal Agency for intellectual property matters but has its own legal personality and is independent of the Swiss Federal budget. Its primary role is as a first point of contact for customers who need industrial property rights. The site provides background information about patents, trademarks, designs and copyright, with links to further details. Forms for completion and submission are available to download in Word and PDF formats.
The Human Tissue Authority (HTA) is a watchdog which licences and regulates organisations that store and use human tissue from both the living and deceased. Its website includes sections on licensing and inspections; information about body, tissue and organ donation; legislation, policies and codes of practice, including links to the Human Tissue Act 2004 and the Human Tissue (Scotland) Act 2006; HTA publications and HTA consultations.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority. Its website makes available a very large collection of economic, social and demographic data, including crime, criminal justice and police statistics, Consumer Price Indices and statistics on company mergers and acquisitions. The Publications section of the site provides articles, bulletins, reports and other materials produced by the ONS.
The National Archives is the UK government’s official public archive, a repository of documents going back more than 1000 years. Its website includes Discovery, a catalogue of its holdings with more than 20 million descriptions of records created by central government and the courts of England and Wales. Some of the records in the The National Archives have been digitised and may be downloaded from the site, for a fee. Archived government webpages are also available, free of charge. The website provides a large collection of research guides, several of which are on legal topics.
Directory of more than 750,000 abbreviations and acronymns, mainly from the fields of computing, government, the armed forces, computing, telecommunications, business and finance. Founded by US-based IT consultant and software developer Mike Molloy, the directory is global in scope. Legal researchers may find it useful for political, governmental, education and other non-law abbreviations (for legal abbreviations, see the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations).
Website of the Department of Justice & Constitutional Development, South Africa. Provides a detailed description of the individual South African courts and their position in the court hierarchy with a link to the court’s own site if available. A section on legislation gives access to Acts and Regulations relating to the work of the department which have been passed since 1994. There are additional sections relating to Bills, Draft regulations, Rules and Practice directions. The 1996 South African Constitution is also available (updated to 16th amendment, 2010).
The Maritime Law Association was established in 1974 with the aim to “promote the study, research, administration and advancement” of maritime laws and their unification with those of road, rail and aviation. Details are given of the aims and objectives of the organisation and its past achievements. Full text access is given to a selection of maritime legislation to which the organisation may have contributed and also to a selection of judgments, both reported and unreported which have been provided by members (the latter is not a comprehensive collection).
