Legislative History

1. Identify a specific section of the U.S.C. to research.

2. Look at the end of the U.S.C. section to find the statute's history. Examine each session law (starting with the most recent one) to find out which session law created or amended the U.S.C. section that is relevant to your issue. Write down the session law's citation. 

3. Go to ProQuest Congressional or ProQuest Legislative Insight. Type your public law number under "search by number“ to access the compiled legislative history (if available). 

Legislative history materials are also available on

• HeinOnline (Select the U.S. Federal Legislative History database)
• Congress.gov
• Govinfo.gov

Note: BSL faculty and students may access the ProQuest databases and HeinOnline remotely via the MyBoydLaw Portal. If you are on campus, go to the law library database page to access the databases. 

You are working on a trademark law case involving a cybersquatting claim. 

You are aware that the defendant's bad faith intent to profit from the plaintiff's trademark is a requisite element of cybersquatting under Lanham Act.

You are also aware that the statute provides many non-exhaustive factors that the court may consider to determine whether the defendant had a bad faith intent. One of the factors is the defendant's prior use of the domain name for a bona fide offering of goods or services. You would like to know if the legislative history says anything about who bears the burden of producing evidence of lawful use to help the court evaluate this factor. 

1. Find the relevant U.S.C. section.

• 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d)(1)(B)(i)(III)

2. Look at the end of the U.S.C. section to find the statute's history. Examine each session law (starting with the most recent one) to find out which session law created or amended the U.S.C. section that is relevant to your issue. Write down the session law's citation. 

• Begin with the most recent session law (Pub. L. 112-190). This one is irrelevant as it does not address § 1125(d)(1)(B)(i)(III).
• The second most recent session law (Pub. L. 109-312) also does not address § 1125(d)(1)(B)(i)(III).
• Section 3002(a) of Pub. L. 106-113 added the language that is currently codified in 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d)(1)(B)(i)(III).

3. Use ProQuest Congressional, ProQuest Legislative Insight, or HeinOnline's U.S. Federal Legislative History database to search for compiled legislative history. If you use ProQuest Legislative Insight, just type the public law number and click "Go to Legislative History" to access the compiled legislative history. 

4. Browse the compiled legislative history page to look for relevant documents. Use the navigation tools and the search box to narrow the results. In this example, Pub. L. 106-113 is a massive appropriations bill consolidating multiple bills including the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. Look for relevant conference/committee reports as they are the most important source of legislative history.

• Senate Report 106-140 and House Report 106-412 seem to be relevant committee reports

5. Read or search the report to see if it says anything about the burden of proof on the defendant's prior use of the domain name for a bona fide offering of goods or services. The last sentence of the first paragraph on page 11 states "A defendant should have the burden of introducing evidence of lawful use to assist the court in evaluating this factor."