REPORT 1
You just started working at a new company a few weeks ago. Because you are such an amazingly likeable person, you already have 4 brand new friends who you eat lunch with everyday. Their names are Agnus, Beavis, Cartman, and Dee.
One day while eating lunch, your new friends heard you say that you had taken a seminar on IP law. Now they have a bunch of questions for you. Agnus suddenly shouts out, “I need to know if I am going to run into trouble with my blog. I want to make fun of world-wide veganism, and when anyone opens my webpage to read my political commentaries on the subject the John Lennon song Imagine plays in the background for 15 seconds and then it stops. Will I get in trouble for that?"
Beavis laughs and says, “Whatever, I have a real question to ask. Can I open my own seafood restaurant down the road from here and call it Red Robster? I also want to sell my food on-line using my own website. I know it sounds close to Red Lobster but who cares. That’s cool right? If I sell my food on www.RedRobster.com, will I have any issues with the domain name? Will Red Lobster sue me?"
Cartman says, “No way, I have a real legal question for you. My manager and I were out to lunch together the other day when we saw Lindsey Lohan coming out of rehab! I took a picture of her and sold it to TMZ for a million bucks! The only problem is I took the picture with my manager’s camera and he says he owns the rights to that picture because I was at work during the time I took the photo. Who is right on this?”
Dee laughs and says, “All of you guys are lame, I have the most legit question. I have been working on a new way to power laptops through the heat of my fingers. Can I get a patent for this? What do I have to prove to be eligible to get a patent? Also, I think my arch enemy is working on the same invention. Will I get the patent if I run down and file first? Lastly, what if my arch enemy reverse engineers my invention and figures out how it works. Would that violate any trade secrets or patents I would have?”
OBJECTIVE
5
Develop a research report or implementation plan concerning legal and ethical best practices and mandated requirements that pertain to information security.
REPORT 2
The Hertz Corporation has begun to receive complaints that its web site contains adult content. After investigating, it finds several misspellings of hertz.com in the domain name system, all of which lead to pornography; herts.com, hurtz.com, etc. After being contacted, John Z, the owner of the domain names, offers to sell them to Hertz.
What is the term(s) for John Z's practice with regard to the domain names? Explore the general trademark, as well as domain, issues, along with possible legal remedies. What is the most efficient legal avenue for Hertz to pursue to address the problem? Which one has the potential for the most reward to Hertz? For damage to John Z? What avenue has the best chance of making certain that the domain names aren't used for these purposes again? Finally, does the domain name registrar have any liability?