Thursday, February 28, 2013
Week 8 EOC : Bratz vs Mattel
Let’s imagine that we have walked into a car dealership. This dealership is known for selling hummers and hummers only. Your walking up and down the aisles and you notice a peculiar row of vehicles. At a glance they look like your ordinary hummers, but upon taking a second look you notice that they are not what they seem. In fact they are reimaginations of hummers created by a completely different company, but still seem identical in many forms. Would this cause confusion, or would it just come down to being a fact that there will always be duplicate “Lookalikes” out there for products. In the lawsuit against MGA Entertainment, Mattel Inc. tried to sue them for theft of trade secrets. “MGA Entertainment Inc.’s $172.5 million victory over rival toymaker Mattel Inc. (MAT) for theft of trade secrets was thrown out by a federal appeals court that said the company’s counterclaims shouldn’t have been allowed to go to the jury. At the same time, the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld the trial judge’s decision to award closely held MGA $137.2 million for having to defend against Mattel’s claims that MGA’s Bratz dolls infringed Mattel’s copyrights.” –www.bloomberg.com/news. The ongoing trial had been a rivalry that had been going on for over eight years that claimed that the Bratz doll was identical of Mattel’s original gal-pal doll Barbie. The trial was ultimately won by MGA that claimed that Mattel employees used fake business cards to get access to MGA’s booths at toy fairs and used this tactic to obtain trade secrets. MGA was awarded $88.5 million in in damages. So to say who is right and who is wrong is a subjective matter, that is tied to the conclusion that originality will always remain no matter who claims their product to be.
Week 8 BOC : Progress on Final Project
Everything is starting
to be put together for the final project.
I already have my contact ready to go and we have been trying to find a
perfect time to meet up and go over the questions. In the event that she is not available, I
have other contacts that are on my list.
The interview process will consist of about ten questions with thorough explanation
required or at least an educated opinion of the topic. Some questions, for example, will be as to if
a local DJ is caught playing the music of another artist, can they be
prosecuted without warning or are they allowed to play the songs so as long
they do not claim it as their own.
Another example question I will be asking is how exactly is a song
patented and protected so that is now copied by another. I have been up date with my twitter accounts
and have all the tweets that are required.
All of my end of class assignments are completed and finished. I got a rocky start in the beginning of the
quarter with this class but have managed to keep myself organized and so far
have completed every assigned requirement.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Week 6 EOC : Illicit Trade
In today’s world we are forced to believe that we have to
have the finer things in life, even if it means to own something that we cannot
simply afford and it is something we do not need. Every company out there trying to sell their
business to the people, are constantly grasping the attention of society and
tricking them into thinking that they need their products whether they want
them or not. In the Illicit filmed that
we viewed in class, the investigators went in depth into finding those who pose
as false distributors and are ultimately caught in the act. Selling an item that is almost identical to
an already existing product will always have its consequences. The film also shows how reproducing already
existing products in China creates about 20% of the jobs in their economy. They also make it clear that disrupting this
order will unstabilize the economy, so it is for the best to remain on the same
routine and stay on schedule. The film
also goes in detail how careful these distributors are when it comes to giving
their trust to potential new customers by meeting them in a populated area of
the city, just a few blocks from where they have set up their boutique. One cannot be quick on the trigger to say
that these people are the scum of the Earth’s existence and are a burden, one
must also take in to consideration that most of these boutiques are set up as a
way to compensate for the lack of money that is available within the region. Families are kept from starvation and poverty
with bootlegging existing products. In
the end, this is crime that will never end, as long as there are people in this
world that need money to support their families.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Week 5 Eoc : Patent Troll
We all go about our daily lives without a care in the world,
for the most part. Even if we are that
specific individual whose intentions are solely based on “doing the right thing”,
there will always be in a hurdle in the middle of the path, or a mountain that
you will have to climb over. There are
those who are always looking to get the upper hand on people, and are willing
to stop at nothing to get what they want no matter what the cost. Fighting for what you want in life is more
than natural, but when it comes down to stepping on people, lying, and
impersonating others to win a battle, it will certainly abrupt constant legal
issues. “Patent Toll is disparaging term
for someone who sue for patent infringement but who does not make or sell any
products using the patented technology.”-Patent, Copyright, Trademark. In the article from Wall Street Journal, it
described how patents can go out of date and one would only have to worry about
a small penalty fee. Other famous lawsuits
have been created within notable companies such as eBay. “In a case that
affected the dynamics of patent troll litigation, ebay was sued by a company
that owned several auction patents” -Patent, Copyright, Trademark. Even the biggest of corporations still have
to endure through the justice system.
No matter what the reputation of a company is like, we are entitled to
our protection against those who abuse their rights. “Alternatively, and injunction should not be
denied simply on the basis that the plaintiff does not make, sell, or use the
patented invention” -Patent, Copyright, Trademark. Those who wish to impersonate other companies
that set up lawsuits when they are not involved, will have to suffer the
consequences in getting involved with companies that they do not belong to.
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