LAW FOR ECONOMISTS

ECS314

 Lecturer: Archan Prapaporn Rojsiriruch (Gift) Contact: giftme828@hotmail.com

Full-time Lecturer: Assumption University Law School
LL.B. Assumption University Barrister-at-Law Lawyer License LL.M. Suffolk University, Global Law and Technology LL.M. Fordham University, IP/IT Law

http://www.scribd.com/doc/150378861/Studying-Plan

Property
Movable Properties/things
Pen Book Computer Table Bags Shoes Land Houses Warehouses Factories Shops Copyrights Trademarks Patents Trade secrets Geographical Indicators

Immovable Properties

Intellectual Property

Main source of INCOME

In the past

Large warehouses and factories

Today

Powerful software Innovative ideas Creativity Brand name

IP Law for economists

Intellectual Property Law What does Intellectual Property mean? "creations of the mind:
inventions, Literary, artistic works, symbols, names, images and designs used in commerce."

Intellectual property.
1. patents for inventions and 2. trademarks 3. copyrights for literary and artistic works that help protect your intellectual property.

IP rights and intangible assets

Innovative products and processes (patents) Artistic and literary works including computer software

and compilation of data (copyright and related rights protection)

Creative designs including textile designs (industrial

design rights)
Distinctive signs (trademarks: collective and

certification marks, and geographical indications)

IP rights and intangible assets

Denominations for goods of a given quality or

reputation attributable to the geographical origin (protection of geographical indications)

Trade Secrets (protection of undisclosed information of

commercial value)

Copyrights
protect original works of authorship You gain rights simply by creating materials, but if you

want to officially copyright your materials, including music, art and writings, register
Your writings can be unpublished and still be protected.

Trademarks
give owners exclusive rights over their business names,

logos and other symbols.

These symbols and words must be used for commercial

purposes to qualify for trademark protection.

Registration Use

Registration is the best way to protect your intellectual

property.

Collective marks
a trademark owned by an organization whose members

use them to identify themselves with a level of quality or accuracy, geographical origin, or other characteristics set by the organization.

Certification mark
certification marks are the evidence of the existence of

follow-up agreements between manufacturers and nationally accredited testing and certification organisations

Patents
give companies or individuals full rights over their

inventions
Patented inventions cannot be sold, created or

imported by others while protected.

They must be considered useful and will not receive

patent protection if they are known to already exist or are in use by others.

EXAMPLE
Supposed that you buy a CD player in order to play

music, what kind of Intellectual Property are involved in this situation?

 Trademarks : Logos, Product Design, the brand name Patent: various technical parts Copyrights: the music played in the CD player

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AS A BUSINESS ASSET

Physical assets Intangible assets

Why do companies invest hugely on building their brands?

Fashion Industry : http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=fashion

+law&view=detail&mid=8DAC2355B35F3B5E08FC8 DAC2355B35F3B5E08FC&first=21&FORM=NVPFV R
BUSINESS ASSETS COPYRIGHTS TRADEMARKS PRODUCT PACKAGING LOGOS DESIGN SCENTS OF PERFUME

BRAND

The value of IP assets

Turning intangible assets into exclusive rights for a

limited period of time

without protection, they will be freely and legally used

by other enterprises

Copyrights
Page 34 a legal concept giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it,

usually for a limited time

Idea and Expression
Ideas are a difficult thing to protect. See: http://humanssince1982.com/a-million-times http://www.adintrend.com/show_ad.php?id=7273

Copyright
Give some examples of enterprise involved in:
Creation Recording Publication Dissemination Distribution

Does your company involve in Retailing of artistic, musical or literary works.? Does your company use Website Brochure Video Advertise on newspapers or TV

What is copyright?
Legal term describing right given to creators for their

literary and artistic works

What is covered by copyright?

Literary works
Novels Poems Plays Reference works Newspapers Computer programs Databases Films Musical Compositions Choreography

What is covered by copyright?

Artistic works Paintings Drawings Photographs Sculpture Architectures Advertisements maps

What rights are protected?

Reproduction public performance recordings broadcasting translation adaptation

Why protect copyright?

Essential to human creativities Incentives for creators Recognition and fair economic rewards *creators are assured that their works can be

disseminated without fear of unauthorized copying or piracy

Increase access to the culture, knowledge, and

entertainment all over the world.

 Supposed that you plan to begin a movie production

company and there is no copyright protection law, do you still motivated to do so?

Public Domain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSDcuAwTYfw http://www.pdinfo.com/PD-Music-Genres/PD-

Popular-Songs.php

Copyright in Cyberspace
Copyright and related rights has expanded widely with

the technological progress in this era

Homework! Go back and take a look at IGs terms of use. What is

the copyright protection and is it fair?

U.S. Law
"original work of authorship" that is "fixed in a

tangible medium of expression,

now known or later developed, from which [it] can be

perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.

COPYRIGHT ACT B.E. 2537 (1994)

"Author" is defined as a person who makes or creates any work, which is a copyright work as determined by this Act; "Copyright" is defined as the exclusive right to execute any act by virtue of this Act regarding the work created by the author; "Literary work" is defined as any kind of literary work including books, pamphlets, writings, printed matters, lectures, sermons, addresses, speeches, and computer programs; "Computer program" is defined as instructions, set of instructions or any other matter, which are used with a computer in order to operate the computer or to generate an output, regardless of the computer language; "Dramatic work" is defined as a work pertaining to choreography, dancing, acting or performance in dramatic arrangement, including pantomime;

 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-26/how-

supap-kirtsaeng-s-textbooks-idea-led-to-supremecourt.html

Fair use
the public is entitled to freely use portions of

copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary and criticism

if you wish to criticize a novelist, you should have the

freedom to quote a portion of the novelists work without asking permission.

whether your use will deprive the copyright owner of

income?

 (1) commentary and criticism, or

Commentary and Criticism uoting a few lines from a Bob Dylan song in a music reviewsummarizing and quoting from a medical article

on prostate cancer in a news reportcopying a few paragraphs from a news article for use by a teacher or student in a lesson, orcopying a portion of a Sports Illustrated magazine article for use in a related court case Why: the public reaps benefits from your review, which is enhanced by including some of the copyrighted material.

Parody
a work that ridicules another, usually well-known work,

by imitating it in a comic way

Trademark Law
a word, symbol, or phrase, used to identify a particular manufacturer or

seller's products and distinguish them from the products of another.

? Why do we need trademark?

Example
the trademark "Nike," along with the Nike "swoosh,"

identify the shoes made by Nike and distinguish them from shoes made by other companies (e.g. Reebok or Adidas).

 the trademark "Coca-Cola" distinguishes the brown-

colored soda water of one particular manufacturer from the brown-colored soda of another (e.g. Pepsi).
Trademarks make it easier for consumers to quickly

identify the source of a given good.

Trademarks give manufacturers an incentive to invest

in the quality of their goods.

If a consumer tries a can of Coca-Cola and finds the

quality lacking, it will be easy for the consumer to avoid Coca-Cola in the future and instead buy another brand.

SELECTING A TRADEMARK
SELECTING A TRADEMARK Distinctive it must be capable of identifying the source of a

particular good
no logical relationship to the underlying product. For

example, the words "Exxon," "Kodak," and "Apple" bear no inherent relationship to their underlying products (respectively, gasoline, cameras, or computers). Similarly, the Nike "swoosh" bears no inherent relationship to athletic shoes. Arbitrary or fanciful marks are inherently distinctive

Trademark Protection
Objectives
Protecting GOODWILLS of the owner of such TM. To distinguish the products of the TM owner from the

product of other company.

Fanciful
No real meaning Kodak Exxon

suggestive mark
suggests a characteristic of the underlying good. "Coppertone" is suggestive of sun-tan lotion, but does

not specifically describe the underlying product.

descriptive mark
directly describes, rather than suggests, a characteristic

or quality of the underlying product (e.g. its color, odor, function, dimensions, or ingredients).
Holiday Inn

generic mark
is a mark that describes the general category to which

the underlying product belongs.

TM loses protection when they become generic When they designate the product rather than the

brand so that a competitor unable to use the same term to designate his brand could not communicate with the consumers.

Infringement
the use of an identical mark on the same product

would clearly constitute infringement.

If I manufacture and sell computers using the mark

"Apple," my use of that mark will likely cause confusion among consumers, since they may be misled into thinking that the computers are made by Apple Computer, Inc.

 Using a very similar mark on the same product may

also give rise to a claim of infringement, if the marks are close enough in sound, appearance, or meaning so as to cause confusion.
"Applet" computers may be off-limits; How about "Apricot."?

 using the same term on a completely unrelated product

will not likely give rise to an infringement claim.

Trademark cases
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LACKP5OAfCg http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/05/gucci-

guess-trademarklawsuit_n_1405784.html#s824177&title=Guess
Guess vs. Gucci Christian Louboutin case http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOr2fLhbVII

homework
Read https://www.facebook.com/lawteachergift?ref=hl http://www.scribd.com/doc/154620471/Posner-05

IP and Economics Approach

Pure economists: Giving rewards or incentives to the creators Innovation Public goods Marginal-cost pricing

 If you own a house or a condominium, it will be yours

forever.
BUT why if you own Copyright and Patent, it is yours

for limited period of time

See page 60 Trademark and Trade secret will be yours without fixed

term because see page 62

Long Copyright term

Life + 50 years (generally) 1. Prevent congestion (not to make access to property

free to all users

Compared to traffic congestion on nontoll roads See page 61 mickey mouse 2. the cost of creating an expressive work and the cost

of disseminating it can be overstated

 When incentive benefits of the work is more than the

access costs, the length of the copyright term becomes a device for preventing the copyright owner from being overrewarded
The duration of the property right Life+50years is this too long or too short?

Exam questions
40 points Short answer question (theory) Essay question (asking your opinion as an economist

who knows law)

General idea of intellectual property law and protection. Why protection IP? How can you create the name of Trademark for a

specific product?