Question

The distinctions and legal issues involved in four main types of intellectual property---patents, trade secrets, copyrights, and trademarks. a. You are an aspiring singer/songwriter and while surfing the internet, you come across the sheet music for a song you think will display your talents well. You don't see any notice of copyright on the webpage or the sheet music. You notice the songwriter's name and after doing some internet research determine that he has been dead for 22 years. You decide to record a video of you singing the song, and you post it to a You Tube-like internet site. A few weeks later, you receive an email from an attorney informing you that you are in violation of copyright law, and if you do not immediately take down the video, the songwriter's estate will pursue legal remedies. What do you think? Did you do anything wrong? Are you in violation of copyright law? Explain

b. Now suppose you own a warehouse in an industrial district. This year you've installed the latest sprinkler and other fire remediation measures. You're proud of the prevention steps you've taken, especially when you look at the neighbor warehouse where the owner has installed the bare minimum to comply with fire department regulations. You decide to call your insurance agent and ask if you can take out fire insurance on the neighboring warehouse. Your insurance agent is sympathetic to having a neighbor who doesn't seem to care as much as you about fire safety, but he tells you he can't sell you such insurance, and he doesn't think any ethical agent will. Why not? What principle of insurance law is involved?

(c) You are the owner of a restaurant and have a special recipe for a marinade that you use for rotisserie chicken. Your rotisserie chicken is a big hit, especially in the take-out market, and comprises some 60% of your business. You decide that you need some kind of intellectual property protection for your marinade recipe. Would you recommend a patent, trademark, copyright, or a trade secret? Explain your reasoning, and the steps you might take to protect your marinade recipe from competitors.

Answer 1

a. Yes, I am wrong in this case. The reason being a copyrighted work does not become public or free from copyrights if the owner dies. In some countries, copyrights law cover the copyrighted work even after the owner’s death and that too for a long period of time. When the owner dies, the ownership of copyrighted work passes on to some other person, just like a property.

b. Insurance law works on the principle of utmost good faith between insurer and insured. If the person entering into an insurance agreement is doing so for a third party, the insurance taken is not ethical. This is because the third party is not directly involved. For the insurance agreement to be effective and lawful, it must be entered into directly by the persons being covered.

c. I would choose trade secret law to protect my marinade recipe. This is because this protection will protect my recipe even if one or more employees leave the organization later on. It has been seen that employees leave organization after learning a lot and open everything in their own name. In order to avoid any future problems, I would use trade secret law to protect my recipe from competitors as well as known individuals.