Brett Trout grew up on computer games – he still has his old Atari system, just so he can show it to grandchildren some day – but when he became an attorney, he found that his new colleagues weren’t nearly as interested in Internet issues as he was.

Now an independent attorney specializing in patents, trademarks, copyrights, software licensing and e-commerce compliance, Trout works with Internet issues every day. “Every business has Internet questions, and I was getting the same ones over and over,” Trout said. “You have to understand intellectual property law, which deals with how to move information from place to place. The Internet is all about that.”

So in 2001 Trout wrote a book, “Internet Laws Affecting Iowa Companies.” Last summer, he broadened the topic and wrote “Internet Laws Affecting Your Company.” It’s a 116-page book published by Virtualbookworm.com Publishing Inc., available from Amazon.com for $12.95.

Trout invested long hours and $800 to get the book written and published, and so far has sold about 60 copies, so it’s not a major profit center for his practice. But it is another way, along with speaking engagements, to establish himself as an authority in the field.

“If you’re in Silicon Valley, you’re automatically accepted as an expert,” he said. “If you’re in Des Moines, you have to work at it.”

In the book, Trout defines esoteric Internet terms such as “metatagging” and “packet sniffing” while outlining legal concepts that business owners should understand.

For example, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was enacted in 1998 to deal with the collision of electronic commerce with existing copyright law. The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act is designed to promote uniformity in state laws regarding electronic transactions.

However, Trout finds that he has to make substantial revisions to his publications every year as the Internet landscape shifts. “With the Iowa book, every year I take out 30 pages that are no longer relevant and add 70,” he said.