Deck 49: The Legal Environment of Business

Question 1

According to the United States Supreme Court, under the First Amendment, if speech is the means for the commission of a specific criminal act,

A)the act is nevertheless not protected speech.
B)the act is protected speech, despite its offensiveness.
C)the statute declaring the crime violates the right to free speech.
D)the act is not criminal unless the speech is offensive.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Bud patents a device that allows its user to pretend to imitate the ability of a superhero copyrighted by Comic Con Inc. Bud and Comic Con enter into a licensing agreement to make and sell the device as a toy to the public. Under the terms of the license, the licensee agrees to pay Bud royalties of 4 percent. Their contract does not specify an end date. According to a majority of the United States Supreme Court in Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment , LLC, Comic Con can legally stop the payments

A)whenever Comic Con chooses.
B)never.
C)when the copyright expires.
D)when the patent expires.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

When making a business decision, those responsible for making it sometimes focus on short-run profit maximization in preference to ethical considerations. Subject to analysis according to the IDDR framework, this decision would most likely

A)fulfill corporate and individual values without regard to ethics.
B)find support under a duty-based ethical standard.
C)withstand scrutiny under an outcome-based ethical standard.
D)not survive under any ethical standard.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Hosni patents a new type of running shoe. Hosni and Iconic Shoe Company enter into a contract that allows the firm to make and market the shoe in exchange for royalty payments to Hosni that decrease after the patent expires. In a previous case, a similar agreement was held to be invalid. According to the dissent in Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment , LLC, stare decisis

A)means "sticking to some wrong decisions."
B)does not require retaining "baseless and damaging precedents."
C)promotes unpredictability and inconsistency in the business world.
D)permits parties to negotiate a licensing agreement that reflects the true value of a patent.

Question 5

Smelting Company has in interest in staying in business. From this perspective, with respect to resolving disputes through arbitration, individual litigation, and class actions, Smelting is ethically required to

A)curb a bad practice.
B)engage in harmful conduct.
C)exhaust its assets to litigate or settle a case.
D)generate fees for lawyers.

Question 6

Suha wishes to file a suit in a state court against Theta. The state allows for service of process via social media if Suha can authenticate Theta's social media account. Allowing service of process only by means of social media raises a question whether that service comports with

A)due process.
B)the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
C)the freedom to contract.
D)the rules of evidence.

Question 7

Lare applies for a job with Marketing Inc. Like most employers, Marketing informs Lare that "any claim relating to this application or employment shall be settled by

A)arbitration."
B)class action."
C)collective decision making."
D)individual lawsuits, not class action."

Question 8

Regional Sales Company expects its sales staff to constantly check their e-mail for work-related messages outside normal working hours. Employees' constant online connectivity with their work raises an issue about

A)the definition of work.
B)work-related stress.
C)the quality of workers' lives.
D)overburdened company servers.

Question 9

An important reason for applying the IDDR approach to a review of the ethical conflicts in a given business situation, and one of the difficulties in evaluating its consequences, is to

A)see ethical lapses in retrospect.
B)identify potential ethical problems in advance.
C)overcome the moral scrutiny of profit motives.
D)fulfill corporate and individual values without regard to ethics.

Question 10

Bey, a process server, cannot locate Cate, the defendant in Demi v. Cate , to serve her with the summons. Bey's legal and effective options for serving process include delivering the summons

A)as an attachment in an e-mail to Demi.
B)through a private message to Cate's Facebook account.
C)via any means over the Internet to Facebook.
D)by posting it on any social media forum that Cate is known to visit.

Question 11

In evaluating the reasonableness of a state statute prohibiting sex offenders from accessing all social media, a court must strike a balance between

A)the government's obligation to protect its citizens and uphold their rights.
B)sex offenders' expectations of privacy and the online environment.
C)social media users' speaking and listening in a modern public square.
D)the vast realms of human thought and knowledge.

Question 12

Fuel-Co Gas Stations LLC pads all of its customers' bills with an unexpected fee, adding up to millions in profit for Fuel-Co at a small expense for each individual customer. The customers could most affordably fight this charge by

A)bringing individual lawsuits.
B)engaging in individual arbitration.
C)filing a class action.
D)taking their case to the state legislature.

Question 13

Security Patrols Inc. requires its employees to respond to work-related text messages delivered via their company-issued smartphones while on duty in the workplace and while off duty elsewhere. Security's employees might successfully sue their employer for

A)ownership of the company's smartphones.
B)a decrease in the quality of life.
C)a violation of the right to disconnect.
D)unpaid overtime.

Question 14

Senta applies for credit with Truck Sales Inc. The company informs Senta that "any claim arising from this deal must be resolved through mandatory arbitration." Through this clause, Truck Sales will most likely avoid all of the following except

A)a lengthy resolution process.
B)engaging in individual arbitration.
C)responding to a class action.
D)settling a groundless claim.