Business Law: Intellectual Property Assignment

You may complete this assignment by yourself or in pairs. You must answer all questions for all four scenarios. Please note, your answers should address the legal issues with intellectual property, not the business issues. None of the answers involve starting a lawsuit against the potential intellectual property violator. 

Scenario #1 (7 marks)

Aedan and June operate a coffee store in Markham called Aedan and June’s Starbuck Coffee Café. They opened the Café in 2018. June’s favourite colour is green, so they decided their logo should be green and white. Aedan wanted to honour his mom, so they chose a female as the symbol for their logo. 

Six months after opening, Aedan and June receive a letter from Starbucks Coffee Company advising that they need to cease and desist. 

1. Identify which specific type of intellectual property Starbucks Coffee Company thinks Aedan and June’s Starbuck Coffee Café violates. (1 mark)
2. Explain how Aedan and June’s Starbuck Coffee Café violates Starbucks Coffee Company’s intellectual property. (2 marks)
3. If you were Aedan and June, what two arguments would you make to say that they did not violate Starbucks Coffee Company’s intellectual property. (2 marks)
4. How many years of intellectual property protection is Starbucks Coffee Company entitled to? (1 mark)
5. If Starbucks Coffee Company did not register their intellectual property, are they still entitled to protection? (1 mark)

Scenario #2 (2 marks)

Momin runs a very successful clothing line called “Wear it Proud” in Ottawa.  In addition to designing his own clothing, he also creates his own textiles.  While travelling in Toronto he sees one his textiles in a store window.  While thrilled that someone thought his textile was amazing enough to copy, he was unhappy his design was used without his consent. 

1. Identify which specific type of intellectual property the Toronto store is violating. (1 mark)
2. Even though it is Momin’s design, when would it not be protected under intellectual property law? (1 mark)

Scenario #3 (8 marks)

Harry is a graphic artist creating graffiti wallpaper.  He designs, manufactures and markets his graffiti wallpaper.  In order to market his work, he created a website.  On the website, his company logo is across the top.  When visitors first open the website, they are greeted with an acoustic guitar piece that Harry wrote himself. 

1. Identify two specific works that are entitled to the same intellectual property protection.  (2 marks)
2. Which specific type of intellectual property do the two works fall under? (1 mark)
3. For each of the two works, how long does the intellectual property last? (2 marks)
4. Does Harry have to register his intellectual property to gain the protections? (1 mark)
5. What symbol identifies the two works as being protected under intellectual property law? (1 mark)
6. Which statute provides Harry the intellectual property protections? (1 mark)

Scenario #4 (3 marks)

Novartis Pharmaceutical is working on a new pain reliever.  It improves on its top selling existing pain reliever.

1. Since Novartis Pharmaceutical is only improving upon its existing patented pain reliever should it register a new patent?  Explain your answer.  (3 marks)

RUBRIC

Each requirement of the assignment identifies how many marks it is worth (20 total marks). 

Deductions

Please note I will take the following deductions on assignments submitted on time:

• Poor grammar, typos, poor sentence structure – 1 mark deduction
• Not professionally organized – 1 mark deduction
• Not professional looking – 1 mark deduction
• Exceeding page limit – 3 pages maximum – 5 mark deduction

Any late assignments will be dealt with in accordance with the Course Outline.