Exam 18: Intellectual Property

For an invention to be considered non-obvious,the general public must not have been able to come to the solution directly and without difficulty.

Which of the following is an example of a registrable industrial design?

Trevor is a struggling,but very talented,musician.Over the years,he has written many great songs,but has yet to receive any media attention for his good work.Frustrated that he has never been able to achieve commercial success,he recently began to explore the idea of selling or licencing his work to other,already established,pop artists.He comes to your record label seeking to sell certain parts of his copyright.How do you foresee being able to exploit Trevor's work? Illustrate how Trevor's work could be unbundled and exploited.Does Trevor run any risks in transferring his rights?

Zitsaway is the ultimate miracle cream for teenagers.Using a special combination of chemicals,Zitsaway is able to clear up the worst cases of acne.Truman,a 16-year-old nerd with particularly bad acne thought that he had finally found the answer to all his social problems when he began using the cream.Although the cream worked like a charm,at $25 a bottle the cream took up most of his allowance.Being the nerd that he was,Truman took the cream to his chemistry lab where he and his teacher managed to identify all the components of the cream.Fortunately,all the components were easily procured and easily combined.Which of the following is TRUE?

Novelty is one of the criteria for copyright protection.

Only works produced by Canadians,or in Canada,are protected by Canadian copyright law.

Which of the following is most closely associated with the notion of moral rights?

A patent can be rejected for public policy reasons,even if all the patent criteria are met.

Explain what is meant by the following statement: "Intellectual property law is a set of rules that aims to balance the rights of a creator against the public interest."

For many years,George Blake worked for the Canadian spy agency.The authorities eventually discovered,however,that he was actually working as a double agent,and that he was passing government secrets to countries that are unfriendly towards Canada.He was convicted and sent to prison,but he managed a daring escape and fled out of the country.Because he is now well-known,and therefore cannot work as a spy,he has written a book in which he reveals several pieces of information that the Canadian government still considered secret and enormously important.A court could,among other things,order George to pay his profits from the book over to the Canadian government.

Whitemud Toothpaste has been recognized by the Canadian Dental Association as preventing tooth decay.As a result,its manufacturer put the association's logo on its tubes of toothpaste.The correct symbol to place next to the certification mark is ©.

Which of the following statements is TRUE with respect to registration of intellectual property rights?

Hearty Meat Sandwiches is a large-sized chain of hamburger and sandwich shops.Although they have been operating in western Canada for 10 years,they had never managed to crack the Quebec market.A few years ago,on the advice of their lawyer,they had registered several trademarks,including their name,their logo (a cartoon heart shape between two pieces of bread),and their slogan "Smarties eat at Hearty's." When Hearty's opened their first Quebec store in Montreal last year,they ran a huge advertising campaign,including bilingual radio spots and ads on television.??When opening day arrived,they were surprised that the number of new customers they managed to attract was far less than in other,smaller towns.Only later did they discover that Montrealers appeared to be flocking to another hamburger joint in town,Hardy's Burgers,owned and operated since 1997 by Jacob Hardy.Needless to say,the owners of Hearty's are miffed.They admit that they probably should have done better research before the opening,but still think it's unfair that their ads are working to their competitor's benefit.They have come to you for advice regarding any recourse relating to their trademark.Advise them of any action they may wish to pursue,remedies they may seek,and the benefits and detriments of pursuing their case.

CobeCola develops a line of sugar-free colas and plans to market it towards people on diets and people who are worried about tooth decay.Which of the following best illustrates a certification mark that may appear on its can?

Woody has invented a method for instantly analyzing perfume,breaking it down into its component chemicals and reproducing the scent.He is so excited about his invention,he wants to tell the world.Which of the following examples of disclosure would be potentially fatal to a patent claim?

A manager at a textile factory suspects his employees are feeding his competitors information about new textiles he is developing.In order to make them aware that this is unacceptable,he reminds them all that any information about his textiles is confidential and must not be disclosed.This is sufficient to ensure that the information is considered confidential.

Siesta Inc owns and operates a chain of Mexican-food restaurants across Canada.The restaurants have become wildly popular,largely because each restaurant is carefully designed and decorated to evoke an authentic Mexican feel.The company is,however,worried that competitors may begin to emerge and draw away customers.Siesta Inc therefore wants to protect itself as much as possible under trademark laws.Which of the following statements is TRUE?

Accounting for profits might be an appropriate award in which of the following cases?

In Canada,trademark protection is afforded only to registered trademarks.

Avery and Bolton are two gifted architecture students at the University of the Outaouais.Both have been involved in a competition to come up with a design for a particularly immense structure.In class one day,one of their professors exposes them to a formula which,when applied in a particular manner to the competition,leads to a new,never-before-thought-of design for particularly immense structures.Independently,both students develop virtually identical designs for the competition.Avery is so enthused by his new discovery that he registers his copyright in the design.Tanner,a slightly lazier student,was considering entering into the same competition.Snooping around Bolton's desk one day,Tanner saw Bolton's design for the super structure.Tanner copied the design,and sold it to an architecture firm.Which of the following is TRUE?