Intellectual property legislation is widely applied in all spheres of civilized contacts. There are four main forms of intellectual, intangible property, which are copyright, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets (Warsinske et al., 2019). This paper aims to discuss a recent business dispute on intellectual property, name the forms of intellectual, intangible property, list remedies available to IP owners, and describe the legislation covering employee’s rights and limitations.
Copyright protects literary and artistic works published online, on paper, or in other forms. Trademark is a logo that represents a company or a brand; some Hollywood celebrities register their images to protect them from being used for advertising purposes (Warsinske et al., 2019). Patents protect the rights for inventions and are issued for a maximum of 20 years period, whereas trademarks protection is eternal as long as its owner is paying fees. Trade secrets are information that gives businesses a competitive advantage.
Notably, the Washington Redskinns Pro-Football, Inc. v. Blackhorse trademark dispute became very famous (Pro-Football, Inc. v. Blackhorse, 2015). It ended on January 18, 2018, with the Fourth Circuit Court’s decision to uphold the Supreme Court’s decision to lift the trademark ban (United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 2018). Amanda Blackhorse acted as the Plaintiff on behalf of Native Americans and demanded the deregistration of the Washington Redskinns trademark.
Remedies available to IP owners are injunction (interdict), delivery up, damages, and accounts of profits. To win a case in the court, one may need to prove the fact of infringement, for example, by providing a copy of the infringed product (Brown, Kheria, Iljadica, & Cornwell, 2019). The claimant may also ask the court to assess the damages suffered as a result of the infringer’s activities. Notably, the account of profits remedy implies that infringer’s profits made from their illegal activities are handed to the claimant. Besides, Copyright law protects employee’s IP rights regarding their work made for hire, whereas non-disclosure agreements and non-compete clauses preserve the trade secrets of the employer.
Thus, a famous business dispute on intellectual property was summarized, and the outcome of this dispute was provided. The remedies available to IP owners are injunction, delivery up, damages, and accounts of profits. In contrast, the main forms of intellectual, intangible property are copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets. The legislation tools that regulate employee’s rights and limitations include Copyright law, non-disclosure agreements, and non-compete clauses.
References
Warsinske, J., Parker, J. T., Graff, M., Malisow, B., Pajari, G., Henry, K.,… Hoover, C. (2019). The official (ISC) 2 Guide to the CISSP CBK reference. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Brown, A., Kheria, S., Iljadica, M. & Cornwell, J. (2019). Contemporary intellectual property: Law and policy. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Pro-Football, Inc. v. Blackhorse, 112 F. Supp. 3d 439 (ED Va. 2015).
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. (2018). Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Alexandria No. 15-1874, Submitted December 22, 2017, Decided January 18, 2018. Web.