Exam 18: Intellectual Property

A government official has appointed you to a committee that is responsible for suggesting improvements to the government's own intellectual property legislation.Which of the following statements is TRUE?

Which of the following would constitute a breach of copyright when carried out without permission from the copyright owner?

Thinking he has invented a new type of mousetrap,Homer begins to market his product.Unbeknownst to him,Olga already owns the patent for an identical mousetrap.Because he did not copy Olga's design,Homer is not infringing her patent.

Henrik successfully sued Acme Inc for violation of his moral rights.Which of the following statements is most likely to be TRUE?

The Enerstretch is an exercise device whose trademark has been registered,although the device itself has not been patented.Sales had been going well,until the Enerstretcher came along.A cheaper copy of the Enerstretch,the Enerstretcher is made with less resilient springs.As a result,the Enerstretcher was prone to snap,injuring its user.The media ran several stories about the victims,and as a result of the bad press,the makers of the Enerstretcher pulled their products off the market.Because of the bad press,the makers of the Enerstretch quickly saw their sales drop as well.You are a risk manager for Enerstretch.Does your company have a case? If so,what kind of remedies can they avail themselves of? Support your answer.

A Canadian inventor has up to 15 months to file a patent application in another Paris Convention member state in order to gain protection in that country.

Explain why fixation is an essential element of any copyright claim.Should the originality requirement be sufficient? In Gould Estate v Stoddart Publishing Co,a journalist named Jock Carroll visited with Glenn Gould,who was soon to become a world famous pianist,but at that point was still a largely unknown artist.As the pair chatted about a range of topics,Carroll snapped 400 pictures,tape recorded some discussions,and wrote notes for others.After Gould's death many years later,Carroll published a book containing photographs and quotations from the time that the pair spent together.Gould's estate sued Carroll for breach of copyright.The court rejected that claim on the ground that the copyright owner was actually the person taking the notes,and not the person who was being quoted.Do you think this is a fair way to allocate copyright?

Raoul Newmen has been operating a shoe store,Newmen's Shoes,in Ottawa for the past 10 years.His business is registered in Ontario as an Ontario Corporation.His store sign reads: NEWMEN'S SHOES™.In 1999,a mega-shoe chain from the US,NewMensShoes,opened up its first Ottawa location.NewMensShoes has been operating in Canada since 1989,at which time it had registered its Canadian trademark: NewMensShoes®.NewMensShoes is irritated because it spends a fortune on advertising,yet people inevitably make the mistake of going to Raoul's store for shoes.Raoul is irritated because he had been running his store without problems until the mega-shoe corporation showed up.NewMensShoes has started an action claiming trademark infringement.Which of the following is most accurate?

Distraught after having lost his cat,Jimmy Corpini drew up some designs for the "Kitty Caller Collar." The collar was designed so that when its wearer strays beyond certain limits,a signal is sent to a receiver,which pinpoints the location of the collar.In anticipation that one day he would get another cat,Jimmy printed off a copy of his design and emailed a copy to himself.A year later,Jimmy moved,and Takashi moved into his home.While cleaning the house,he came across the design.An engineer by trade,and cat lover by nature,Takashi copied the designs and took them to the Patent Office,where he applied for a patent on the collar,which he renamed the "CatchMeow." In due course,the patent was granted.Six months later,on the advice of an entrepreneur friend,Jimmy produced 100 Kitty Caller Collars,and began selling them at pet shows.He was unaware that Takashi had patented his invention.The collars sold quite well,and Jimmy became something of a local star in the community newspapers.Soon thereafter,Jimmy received a letter from a stern lawyer informing him that he had to stop selling his Kitty Caller Collars,because by so doing he was infringing the patent for the CatchMeow.Which of the following is the most accurate assessment?

Explain the difference between natural scarcity and artificial scarcity.How can intellectual property laws affect the scarcity of a particular asset? Illustrate with an example.

James owns a software development company.He toils day-in and day-out to develop new ideas.For James,the laws of intellectual property are useful because

Knock-offs and trademark depreciations are two examples of trademark infringement.How do the two differ? Provide an example of each.

BrainFood is a brand used to promote a concoction of natural ingredients sold in natural health stores as a supplement to help with memory retention.Recently,MindFood has come onto the market and has begun selling supplements that,although composed of different ingredients,are also meant to help with memory loss.The packaging is similar,and the two products are sold in the same stores.Customers are often confused as to which product is which is made by which company.Which of the following is most likely TRUE?

Double Burger is a musical sensation in the local rap world of Moosejaw.His shows are always sold out and he is on the verge of being signed to a record label.Double Burger's songs tend to incorporate samples from other songs,mostly cheesy pop songs from the fifties.His friends tell him that it is okay to use the samples because he does not use the songs in their entirety,but only short excerpts.He comes to you for a second opinion on copyright infringement.Advise Double Burger on how to proceed.

Which of the following statements about trade secrets is true?

Achmed has invented a mechanism for building barbwire fences.It consists of a motorized machine that stretches the barbwire between two fence posts.It then wraps the barbwire around the post,ensuring that the fence is stable.The beauty of the mechanism is that at no point must a person touch the wire,thus drastically reducing the fear of injury.However,there are still a few glitches in the system.For example,the machine stretches the wire too much,causing the wire to snap before the fence is complete,and flail about until the operator turns off the machine.This increases the potential safety hazard,as the broken barbwire swings about dangerously until the machine is turned off.Additionally,if the operator does not turn it off in time,the loose barbwire ends up damaging the machine.Achmed is convinced that with a bit of tinkering,he can get it working better.Which of the following is TRUE of Achmed's invention?

Which of the following is TRUE of a breach of confidence?

Of the following,which are only protected if they are registered?

When a party succeeds in showing that another party has been unjustly enriched,the appropriate remedy is an injunction.

Explain what is meant by the novelty requirement in patent law.Is it sufficient for a product to be the first one on the market?