BBS_6_LPB Legal Protection of Business Creativity Assignment

Introduction Of Legal Protection of Business Creativity

The legal protection of business creativity involves various intellectual property laws that provide legal protection for businesses' creative works, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, and design rights. These laws aim to protect businesses' innovative ideas, products, and services from unauthorized use and ensure that businesses can benefit from their creative endeavors.

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Figure 1 Intellectual property Rights

(Source: Funders and founders, 2023)

1. Copyright

Copyright is a legal concept that continues to play an important role in preserving the rights of writers of original works. The Copyright Act of 1976 rules copyright law in the United States, and it has been revised multiple times, notably the Music Modernization Act of 2018 and the Creative Option in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act of 2020. These changes address new issues that have emerged in the digital age, such as streaming and internet piracy.

In recent years, copyright legislation has been expanded to include a broader range of materials, such as literary works, artistic recordings, theatrical performances, choreographic workings, symbolic, graphic, and progress of project, movement pictures and other video effects, audio recordings, as well as architectural drawings (Stokes, 2021). Also, the rise of the social media and the internet has enhanced the ease of copying and spreading copyrighted information, resulting to innumerable cases of copyright infringement.

The continuing dispute between Google and Oracle over the usage of Java in the creation of the Android operating system is one famous case of copyright infringement. Oracle claims that Google's utilization Java in Android violates its copyright, while Google claims that its exercise of Java is permissible under the fair use theory (Frankel and Forrest, 2018). The matter has gone through multiple rounds of litigation, culminating in a 2018 judgment in favors of Oracle by the US Court of applications for the Federal Circuit. However, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favors of Google in March 2021, declaring that Google's use of Java in Smartphone’s was a fair use.

2. Patent

A patent is a legal concept that grants inventors exclusive rights to their novel and non-obvious inventions (Trappey et.al 2017). A patent allows the creator the special right to restrict others from producing, using, distributing, or introduction the invention without authorization for a set duration of time, typically 20 years from the date of filing. The patent system exists to promote innovation and advancement in numerous disciplines such as science and technology.

Patent law varies across jurisdictions, but in the United States, it is governed by the Patent Act of 1952 and managed by (USPTO)[1]. The types of materials that are eligible for patent protection include machines, processes, manufactures, and compositions of matter.

One notable case[2] of patent infringement is a high-profile dispute between two tech giants over smartphone patents (Albasoos and Al Musallami, 2020). Apple had accused Samsung of infringing on several of its patents related to the iPhone, including the design of the phone's icon grid and the "bounce-back" feature when scrolling. After years of litigation and several rounds of appeals, the Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favor of Samsung, stating that the lower court had applied an incorrect legal standard for damages and ordered the case to be reevaluated.

3. Trademark

A trademark is a symbol, term, phrase, pattern, or combination of these elements that recognizes and distinguishes one provider of products or services from others. A trademark's objective is to preserve a brand's reputation and goodwill while also preventing customer confusion in the marketplace. Trademark law varies by country, but it is governed [3]and handled by the United States Patent and Trademark Office in the United States (USPTO) (Simmons, 2017).

In the United States, trademarks can be registered with the USPTO, which provides additional legal protection and benefits to the trademark owner, including the right to use the trademark nationwide and the right to sue for infringement. The types of materials that can be protected by a trademark include brand names, logos, slogans, and even sounds, colors, and scents.

One example of a trademark infringement case[4] is in which Adidas accused Skechers of infringing on its three-stripe trademark. Adidas argued that Skechers' use of a four-stripe design on its shoes was likely to cause confusion among consumers and dilute the distinctive quality of Adidas' trademark (Sukesh, 2019). After years of litigation, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of Adidas, stating that Skechers' use of four stripes was likely to cause confusion and constituted trademark infringement.

4. Design Rights

Design rights are a type of intellectual property protection that offers exclusive rights to a product's visual appearance or design. In other words, design rights safeguard a product's distinctive and original visual features, such as its shape, pattern, colour, or texture (Bently et.al 2022). This protection allows designers and manufacturers to prohibit others from unauthorized copying or replicating their designs, providing them a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

National laws and international treaties, such as the Hague Convention Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs, govern design rights. Design rights are generally protected in the United States through design patents, which grant 15 years of exclusive rights to the ornamental design of a functioning object.

One example of a design rights infringement case[5] is the dispute over Smartphone design. In this case, Apple accused Samsung of copying the design of its iPhone, particularly its rounded corners and grid of colorful icons, in its competing line of smartphones (Coughlin, 2016). After years of litigation and several appeals, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of Apple, stating that Samsung's design was too similar to Apple's and constituted design patent infringement.

5. ‘The UK Copyright Law does not sufficiently defend modern forms of artistic expression.’

Section 4[6] establishes the classifications of works that qualify for copyright protection in the UK. These include original literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, and films. However, some argue that the current law does not sufficiently defend contemporary forms of artistic appearance, such as digital works, video games, and virtual reality content.

5.1 The scope of the rights

The CDPA provides copyright protection for the economic and moral rights of authors, which include the right to reproduce, distribute, and communicate the work to the public, as well as the right to be attributed as the author of the work. However, some argue that the current law does not adequately address issues such as online piracy and the use of copyrighted material in new media platforms (Overton, 2019). Additionally, the scope of copyright protection for works of applied art, such as industrial design and fashion, is limited under UK law.

5.2 Compatibility of current and previous practice

In recent years, the UK Copyright Law has been amended multiple times to address some of the challenges raised by modern forms of artistic expression. For example, in 2014, the CDPA was revised to allow for personal copying of copyrighted works, such as ripping music from CDs to electronic devices. There are still concerns that the legislation does not effectively safeguard digital creations, which are being shared and circulated online.

5.3 Approach of other jurisdictions

To address current forms of artistic look, some jurisdictions, such as the US States and the European Union, have enacted more comprehensive copyright regulations. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in the United States, for example, provides safe harbor provisions for online service providers to limit responsibility for copyright violation by users, whereas the EU's Directive on Copyright in the digital single market established new copyright rules for online platforms and news aggregators.

5.4 Support of other academic writing

Some academic writing supports the argument that the UK exclusive rights Law does not sufficiently defend contemporary forms of creative appearance. For instance, in a 2015 report[7] was suggested that the law needed to be updated to reflect changes in technology and consumer behavior (Coombs, 2020). Similarly, in a 2018 article in the European Intellectual Property Review, the author argued that the UK Copyright Law was outdated and needed reform to address issues such as online piracy and the use of copyrighted material in new media platforms.

Conclusion

In conclusion, legal protection is necessary for businesses to safeguard their creativity and stop others from using their ideas without permission. The intellectual property laws provide businesses with the necessary legal framework to protect their innovations, ensuring that they can reap the rewards of their hard work and investment.

References

Albasoos, H. and Al Musallami, N., 2020. The conflict between Apple and Samsung over patents and copyrights. Bussecon Review of Social Sciences (2687-2285), 2(3), pp.1-17.

Bently, L., Sherman, B., Gangjee, D. and Johnson, P., 2022. Intellectual property law. Oxford University Press.

Coombs, E., 2020. May the farce be with you: confusing sculptures post-Lucasfilm. York L. Rev., 1, p.36.

Coughlin, T., 2016. Apple, Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co.: Economics of design patent trolling. Cardozo Arts & Ent. LJ, 35, p.209.

Frankel, S.J. and Forrest, E., 2018. Essay: What Remains of Fair Use for Software after Oracle v. Google. NYU J. Intell. Prop. & Ent. L., 8, p.310.

funders and founders, 2023. Intellectual property Rights .(online) < http://fundersandfounders.in/intellectual-property-rights.html> accessed on 28 march 2023.

Overton, H., 2019. 0020-133553-l-MBIE-Copyright-Act-1994-review-Issues-Paper-4-4.

Simmons, N.R., 2017. Putting Yourself in the Shoes of a Patent Examiner: Overview of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Patent Examiner Production (Count) System. J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L., 17, p.i.

Stokes, S., 2021. Art and copyright. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Sukesh, R., 2019. Battle of the Stripes: An Aristotelian Analysis of Adidas'" Three Stripes" Trademark Infringement Cases. Fordham Undergraduate Law Review, 1(1), p.3.

Trappey, A.J., Trappey, C.V., Govindarajan, U.H., Chuang, A.C. and Sun, J.J., 2017. A review of essential standards and patent landscapes for the Internet of Things: A key enabler for Industry 4.0. Advanced Engineering Informatics, 33, pp.208-229.

[1] The United States Patent and Trademark Office

[2] Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (2018),

[3] by the Lanham Act of 1946

[4] Adidas America, Inc. v. Skechers USA, Inc. (2017)

[5] Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (2012)

[6] the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA)

[7] by the UK Intellectual Property Office