Editor's Guide

Welcome to the Report Editor's Guide!

This guide will provide an overview of your responsibilities as a Editor of a Digest Report. Reports are short, objective overviews, 500–700 words in length, of recent court opinions or pieces of legislation. They also provide links to primary sources and additional commentary for readers who want to dig deeper.

Subject Matter Coordinators (SMCs) are constantly looking for “hot” law & technology news. They will assign the topic to you and a Report Contributor. Your job as the Report Editor is to ensure it is publication-ready.

Editing Process in a Nutshell

• Step 1: Getting Started

• Step 2: Receiving and Confirming Receipt of Your Assignment

• Step 3: Editing

• Step 4: Moving the Report Forward

• Step 5: Feedback

Step 1: Getting Started

You, the Report Editor, are tasked with reviewing the Contributor's draft for substantive and technical accuracy. You will usually have about two days after the Contributor has shared the first draft to give comments and suggestions. You'll be working with the Contributor in finalizing the draft before handing it off to the SMC and Digest Engagement Editor (Alicia Loh) for a final review and publication.

Here's what the editing timeline will look like (unless otherwise stated):

• Sunday Night: SMC will send the assigning email

• Thursday by noon: Contributor finishes draft report

• Saturday by noon: Editor submits all edits

• Sunday by noon: Contributor finalizes changes

• The following week: SMC and Digest Engagement Editor makes final edits, and Report is published

Step 2: Receiving and Confirming Receipt of Your Assignment

Instructions

The SMC will send you and the Contributor an assigning email with:

1. Name of your Contributor and Editor

2. Draft due date and editing timeline

3. Report topic

   1. Background (parties, procedural posture, etc.)

   2. Significance of the case/legislation

   3. Link or attachment to primary source

   4. What to do if you want to choose a different topic

4. Link to Contributor, Editor, and Style & Citation Guides

5. Credentials for online Bluebook access

If the email is missing any information OR you have questions: immediately contact your Subject Matter Coordinator. If the Coordinator does not respond, feel free to contact the Digest Engagement Editor, who is also available to answer questions.

Sample Email

Assignment Date: February 17, 2018

Assignment: summarize Aatrix Software, Inc. v. Green Shades Software, Inc., No. 2017-1452, 2018 WL 843288 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 14, 2018) along with links to at least two outside sources. You can find examples of posts at https://jolt.law.harvard.edu/digest/category/?cat=patent.

Draft Deadline (Contributor send draft to me and Editor): 11:59 pm on Thursday, Feb 21.

Edits Deadline (Editor send marked up draft to me and Contributor): noon on Sat, Feb 24.

Thanks for writing for Digest this semester! According to the Fall 2017 Report Schedule, <Contributor>, you have been assigned the role of Digest Contributor for this week. <Editor>, you are assigned the role or Report Editor.

ASSIGNMENT <Contributor>, your task is to summarize Aatrix Software, Inc. v. Green Shades Software, Inc., No. 2017-1452, 2018 WL 843288 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 14, 2018).

At issue here is whether the patented technology should have been patent-eligible. 35 U.S.C. § 101 defines what may be patented. Courts have consistently held that abstract ideas, laws of nature, and natural phenonmenons are not patentable. The question then often turns on what falls in each of these three categories. Though commonplace, the issue is probably the most fundamental question in patent law and supported by one of the least defined doctrines in the field.

You will almost certainly come across the Alice test. Courts applying the test engage in a two-step inquiry. In step one, courts figure out whether the matter at issue falls in one of the three patent-ineligible categories: abstract idea, laws of nature, or natural phenomenon. If not, then it is patentable. If so, then the courts ask whether there is an "inventive concept" that "transforms" the patent-ineligible matter into something "more" that is patentable. Readers will be most curious about the facts the courts considered in reaching their decisions on each of these steps.

<Editor>, your job is to ensure the report is substantively accurate and give suggestions on big picture flow. Defer to the Contributor on writing style.

This can be a very confusing case so don't hesitate to email me with any questions. You'll find the case at http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/opinions-orders/17-1452.Opinion.2-12-2018.1.PDF (also attached). You can find other Federal Circuit cases at http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/opinions-orders/search/report.html.

In addition to summarizing the case, your article should also include at least 2 hyperlinks to related material and/or commentary. These can include briefs (filed by the party or amicus), legal blogs, JOLT articles or Digest posts, news articles.

You can find an example of a Digests post here.

You should follow the appropriate Digest Report guides: Style & Citations Guide, Contributor's Guide, and Editor's Guide. On occasion, the Style Guide requires you to follow the Bluebook (though we never pincite). JOLT maintains several online bluebook accounts to help with that process. Log-in with the following credentials at www.legalbluebook.com.

Accounts: [excluded]

Password: [excluded]

<Contributor>, please send <Editor> and me your draft by 11:59pm Wed, Feb 21. <Editor>, please send the marked up draft to <Contributor> and me by 11:59pm Sat, Feb 24. Requirements are listed in your corresponding guides. Please follow them closely.

Lastly, Digest is looking to constantly improve the publication process. If you find any part of it confusion -- the requirements, guides, communication, etc. -- please let us know so that we can make adjustments.

Your Responsibilities

After receiving your assignment from the Subject Matter Coordinator (SMC), immediately "reply all" to the email and:

1. Confirm to the SMC and Contributor that you have received and can complete the assignment.

2. Alert the SMC and Contributor to any problems that may delay your submission

Step 3: Editing

Your Responsibilities

As an Report Editor, you will work with the Contributor to ensure the report is publication-ready.

1. Read the primary source and links provided by the SMC to check for substantive accuracy

2. Ensure the tone of the piece is impartial and any opinions are attributed to a source. Step 3 of the Contributor's Guide may be helpful to understand how a piece should be structured.

3. Make sure that the Contributor's piece follows the Style & Citations Guide

4. Copy edit the piece for typos and grammatical errors

The Contributor will have shared in the assigning email thread the link to the Google Doc containing the draft (see Step 4 of the Contributor's Guide for more details). Enter your comments and edits directly into the Google Docs in "Suggest Edits" mode.

Step 4: Moving the Report Forward

Your Responsibilities

Notify your Contributor when you are done with edits, and be available to look over any changes made.

Once you're done with your comments and suggestions, reply all in the assigning email thread letting everyone know (1) a summary of your edits; and (2) any questions/concerns that arose during editing.

Then Contributor then has at least 24 hours to implement your suggestions. This time period is meant to allow a back and forth between you and the Contributor to refine your piece before the SMC reviews it. The SMC may offer an additional round of edits. You and the Editor will be asked to review the Report one last time before it is published.

Step 5: Feedback

You must fill out the feedback form to receive feedback.

After the Report is published online, you will get an email from the Digest Engagement Editor with a link and a feedback form. We ask for your feedback on:

1. Your experience editing the Report (to help us improve the process)

2. Your experience working with the SMC and Contributor (to help us make promotion decisions)

We also provide the opportunity to give anonymous feedback to your Contributor. The Digest Engagement Editor will combine their feedback with your feedback and the SMC's. The feedback you receive will be similarly anonymized.

Thank you!

The JOLT Digest team thanks you for the time you will be putting into creating Digest content. We hope you enjoy the content creation process and working with the subject matter of your assignments.

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