Essay Sample on Protecting Patents and Technologies in an Era of Technological Advancement

Introduction

While technological advancement has ushered in an era of ease of access to information as well as the simplification of life, it has also opened up a series of challenges. Among these challenges are those that are interpretable from a legal perspective. Typically, the legal aspect of technology or any other innovative enterprises is the issue of copyright infringement. In this regard, this confab will consider the laws that govern the protection of patents on products and other technologies while at the same time highlight the possible courses of action one can take if they encounter such issues.

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Before delving into the legalities associated with patenting and copyright protection, one must consider the meaning of a patent and its relevance to protecting the interests of inventors and innovators concerning their products (de Almeida et al., 310). According to Investopedia, a leading online resource on business issues and subjects, copyrights are the legal rights assigned to ab individual over intellectual property. Consequently, a patent is a government-issued authority or license that acts as proof of one's ownership of an invention or an innovation (Martin de Castro, 144).

Inferring to the definitions in the paragraphs above, one considers the position of Yvonne, TechGlobe's CEO. Using the I-R-A-C structure of answering questions, the first step to answering the question of what the relevant courses of action by Yvonne are is the identification of the issue of interest (Kraft, 567). In this context, the issue is the infringement of copyrights and the defamation of character. While the executive is without her rights and jurisdictions to yell at the receptionist of her competitor, she was well within the law to raise concerns regarding the theft of her company's intellectual property (Lloyd, 1). The next step is the establishment of the rule, which in this context is the copyright infringement laws, which in this regard is the patent that the company acquired once they invented the virtual waiting room (Trautman et al.). When the company launched its virtual waiting room, it made sure to protect the company's interest concerning its innovation. The company, who in this context are the principal owners of the technology, managed to obtain a patent for the technology way before the launch of the product (Turner, 351). Despite the legal protection that the company afforded its product or intellectual property, its competitor, AppGenius, still managed to maneuver the legal landscape of it all and come up with a similar product.

The next step is the application of rules, as discussed in the last part of the paragraph above. In this context, AppGenius acted within the law since they marketed their virtual waiting room differently compared to TechGlobe's Virtlux. Nonetheless, from a professional and ethical perspective, the actions of AppGenius were far beyond the confines of justice (Silviana, 899). The basic framework of their virtual waiting room was a shadow, if not a shell of the TechGlobe's original technology. In this regard, it was the right of Yvonne to raise her concerns regarding the theft of her company's intellectual property. The reason for this assertion is that legal action is the only appropriate course of action when it comes to such issues as copyright infringement. Inferring to the statement above, it is evident that it was misinformed for the CEO to handle the issue by calling her competitor directly. Instead, the CEO should have conferred with her legal counsel who would have, in turn, advised her on the necessary legal actions regarding the issue accordingly, since she had already messed up, resulting in a recording of her verbally abusing the receptionist. Concerning the issue of the recording and the possible charges that the competitor might file, the accused can respond by counter-filing with an accusation of defamation of character.

Conclusion

Conclusively, the relevant course of action regarding the infringement of copyrights is the pursuit of one's interests in a court of law. Therefore, companies need to hire the service of corporate lawyers who will ensure the seeking of and attainment of justice in case competitors steal their intellectual property. Generally, such issues result in monetary compensation of the affected companies that manifest in the form of millions of dollars. Yvonne should have waited for legal counsel before confronting her competitor regarding ITroom and its cloning of Virtlux technology.

Works Cited

de Almeida Pereira, Sirlei, and Luc Quoniam. "Intellectual property and patent prospecting as a basis for knowledge and innovation-a study on mobile information technologies and virtual processes of communication and management." RAI Revista de Administracao e Inovacao 14.4 (2017): 301-310.

Gossman, William G., and Matthew Varacallo. "Defamation." StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing, 2019.

Martin-de Castro, Gregorio. "Knowledge management and innovation in knowledge-based and high-tech industrial markets: The role of openness and absorptive capacity." Industrial Marketing Management 47 (2015): 143-146.

Morgan, Sara K. "The international reach of criminal copyright infringement laws-can the founders of the Pirate Bay be held criminally responsible in the United States for copyright infringement abroad." Vand. J. Transnat'l L. 49 (2016): 553.

Kenton, Will. "Copyright." Investopedia, 26 Oct. 2009, www.investopedia.com/terms/c/copyright.asp.

Kraft, Diane B. "CREAC in the Real World." Clev. St. L. Rev.63 (2014): 567.

Lloyd, Harold Anthony. "Good Legal Thought: What Wordsworth Can Teach Langdell About Forms, Frames, Choices, and Aims." Vt. L. Rev. 41 (2016): 1.

Trautman, Lawrence J., et al. "IRAC! IRAC! IRAC!: How to Brief a Supreme Court Opinion." (2017).

Turner, Tracy. "Finding consensus in legal writing discourse regarding organizational structure: A review and analysis of the use of IRAC and its progenies." Legal Comm. & Rhetoric: JAWLD 9 (2012): 351.

Silviana, Banu Geanina. "Open innovation model: enabling the market uptake of innovation." Procedia Manufacturing 22 (2018): 893-899.