intellectual Property Law - Answer-Trademarks, trade secrets, patents, and copyrights
-more important in modern times
-intangible assets
IPL concepts - Answer-1) Protects certain types of knowledge, ideas, and expressions by granting exclusive rights to creators
2) When someone else violate...
LEB 320F Ch. 9 Exam Questions and
Answers
intellectual Property Law - Answer-Trademarks, trade secrets, patents, and copyrights
-more important in modern times
-intangible assets
IPL concepts - Answer-1) Protects certain types of knowledge, ideas, and expressions
by granting exclusive rights to creators
2) When someone else violates these rights, the violator is engaging in a form of
competition that is unlawful
3) Even though there is a general consensus that intellectual property laws benefit
society in the long run, such laws can go too far. I.e. something useless gets IP
protected, society doesn't reap real benefits.
Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights sets # of minimum requirements for IP
protection in all member states
Trade Secret - Answer-Any type of knowledge that is not generally known and is not
readily available through legal means, if the knowledge gives its owner a competitive
advantage over rivals who do not have the knowledge.
-Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA)
To bring a trade secret misappropriation case, a plaintiff must prove - Answer-(1) the
information actually was a trade secret
(2) the plaintiff had maintained reasonable measures to protect secrecy
(3) the defendant improperly acquired, used or disclosed the trade secret information
To qualify for a trade secret - Answer-1) the extent to which the information is or is not
known outside the company
(2) how easy or difficult it would be for someone else to independently develop the
information or to acquire it properly
(3) value of the information to the company
(4) amount of time and money it took the company to create the information
(5) how well the company has protected the information
the law expects a trade secret owner to go into protecting a secret factors - Answer-1)
how valuable is the info
2) how much would additional protective measures cost
3) how much would security measures interfere with employees' ability to do their jobs
4) how much protection would additional security measures provide?
Coca- Cola Formula - Answer-- prototypical trade secret
-Can't be general knowledge
, - Not accessible by legal means
- Info gives owner a competitive edge
typical measures - Answer--providing info in restricted areas, keeping doors and gates
locked, requiring IDs and good computer password policies, using surveillance cameras
or other appropriate devices such as motion detectors, having fences
E.I duPont de Nemours and Co v. Christopher - Answer-Dupont designed a refining
plant to enable them to use its new, secret process for producing methanol.
Someone (a skilled individual) could figure it out just by looking at the construction
model of the refining plant
Court held that the requirement of reasonable protective efforts did not mean that
dupont was required to build a dome over the construction site (something expensive +
extra)
Defendants Misappropriated by taking aerial shots of the plant.
example of the way courts balance relative costs and benefits of additional sec.
measures when deciding if owner should have made more protective efforts - Answer-
E.I duPont de Nemours and Co v. Christopher
Misappropriation
p. 242 - Answer-the acquisition of things valuable to a business through a malicious
manner. Conduct will amount in misappropriation if it is independently illegal (bribery,
burglary, trespassing, tapping phones, fraudulent misrepresentation
breach of a duty of confidentiality
p. 242 - Answer--most common forms of misappropriation.
- An obligation to keep info confidential, to not disclose it to others and to not use it for
any purpose than to benefit the owner can be express or implied.
-A common example of implied confidentiality obligation is employment context. All
employees, if disclose info, is misapp.
Two methods of acquiring trade secrets that are NOT misappropriation
p. 242 - Answer-1) Independent development: if someone else develops the same
knowledge on its own
2) Reverse engineering: if someone disassembles and works backwards to discover the
trade secret
Or the information is found in a product
Smith v. Snap-On Tools Corp.
p. 242 - Answer-The investor (plaintiff) neither patented or kept it confidential. He
voluntarily offered it to a tool company (D) stating it would be compensation enough if
some day he saw D sell his invention. D began selling and made a lot of money.
P sued for trade secret misapprop. But lost because he voluntarily conveyed the
information to D without demanding or requesting confidentiality
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