Management Assignment: Intellectual Property
Write a 2-page executive briefing of a selected federal or state court case pertaining to the topic of intellectual property.
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
• Competency 1: Articulate the importance, context, purpose, and relevance of law in a business environment.
o Summarize the facts and ruling of a legal case.
• Competency 3: Evaluate key judicial concepts that influence the decisions related to business.
o Analyze how a legal case could impact businesses.
o Explain how a legal case could impact a specific organization.
• Competency 5: Develop information literacy skills as applied to business law.
o Exhibit information literacy skills as applied to business law.
For this assessment, you will first select an actual business-related legal case, pertaining to the topic of intellectual property, based on briefly conducting associated research. Based on that, you will then select an organization that you believe would be impacted by that legal case. Having completed both of these tasks, you should assume you're a senior manager in the organization you selected, and that you were asked to perform an analysis of the legal case and to write an executive briefing for the executive team of that same organization. Your executive briefing should include a summary of the case, as well as an evaluation of how the case impacts the organization.
The purpose of this format is two-fold:
1. To give you the opportunity to research and investigate a real court decision.
2. To challenge you to think about the business implications of the case, and specifically how the case will impact an actual organization.
In your case law analysis you must be able to navigate the court's decision, and summarize and evaluate it. You may choose any business-related court case, either state or federal, as the basis for your case law executive briefing, as long as the case is applicable to the assessment topic. You are expected to conduct your own independent research to locate and evaluate the applicability of cases. A few appropriate case law websites are recommended for you in the Resources, but you are not limited to using cases from these sites.
For this assessment, use credible legal research databases and online resources, research federal and state court cases, and select any business-related case that has been decided by a state court, a federal court, or the United States Supreme Court. Then select an organization (potentially the organization for which you work) that you believe the selected case might impact. Write an executive briefing that addresses the following:
Research federal and state court cases pertaining to the topic of intellectual property. Select one court case and write an analysis that addresses the following:
1. Articulate the context and relevance of law in a business environment:
o Identify the parties who are before the court.
o Provide a brief background and context associated with the case. Summarize the facts in no more than 2-3 paragraphs.
o Identify the specific disagreement between the parties.
o Explain the ruling of the court and its business relevance in no more than 1-2 paragraphs. Was there a dissenting opinion? If so, explain why some of the judges or justices disagreed with the majority in the decision.
2. Evaluate the business impact of the case:
o Summarize your analysis of how the case will impact businesses in general, including both positive and negative impacts.
o Indicate the organization you selected as potentially impacted by the case and why you selected that organization.
o Explain how the case will impact the specific organization you selected, such that the executive team will understand the implications of the legal decision.
Based on your executive audience, your executive briefing should be no more than two pages, and should be well organized and written in clear, succinct language. Follow APA rules for attributing sources that support your analysis and conclusions.
Read the following document for important information related to the following additional topics:
• Employment-at-Will in the United States.
• Combating Employment Discrimination.
Employment-at-Will in the United States
What often surprises Europeans who visit U.S. workplaces or study U.S. employment and labor law is the fact that the worker in the U.S.-compared to France, Germany, and Italy-lacks many of the protections from layoffs and firings that can be found in Western Europe. Indeed, the U.S. concept of employment-at-will, whereby either an employee or employer can terminate the working relationship at any time for virtually any reason, is unique to U.S. employment law, and has deep and lasting ramifications upon how the employer-employee relationship evolves and develops.
The concept of employment-at-will emerged as a defense against involuntary servitude-in other words, preventing someone from being forced to work against his or her will. This gives U.S. workers maximum flexibility to choose their workplaces, chart their career paths, and pursue better and more lucrative job opportunities when they arise. However, employment-at-will also carries severe downsides for the employee. There are few, if any, protections for workers from being let go during an economic downturn, posing significant risks for workers in economic sectors that are extraordinarily cyclical, such as manufacturing. In addition, the absence of any incentive for employers to keep workers during economic downturns has probably led to an increased trend toward outsourcing, downsizing, and streamlining operations. Finally, the employment-at-will relationship also leaves the employer-employee relationship in a constant state of uncertainty. An employee hired today may leave next year, next month, or next week. Because of that, it is difficult for employers to predictably manage and forecast their workforce.
Supporters argue that U.S. companies are more flexible and nimble than their European counterparts because they can hire and fire depending upon cyclical economic cycles. An argument can be made that the symmetry of employment-at-will, which grants equal rights to employers and employees to terminate the working relationship, presents an equilibrium of power that may not exist in Europe, where employees may hold stronger rights than corporations. However you stand on this issue, one thing is certain; employment-at-will is a very strong underlying force in U.S. employment law, and has been consistently upheld in the courts.
Combating Employment Discrimination
Employment discrimination is another major theme in business law. The employment-at-will legal concept does not allow an employer to terminate the U.S. worker for just any reason. Arbitrary and capricious firings based upon race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or disability, are prohibited. Employees can-and have-successfully sued employers for firing based on those discriminatory criteria.
However, it is not easy to prove discrimination in the workplace. Proving the intent of an employer in an alleged discriminatory firing of an employee is extraordinarily difficult. Many worker discrimination suits are settled prior to litigation, and when cases do go to litigation the plaintiffs' success rate is fairly low. Workers seeking to bring a suit on discriminatory grounds need to have a plethora of evidence, and must be able to document that discrimination in a way that is persuasive and compelling.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.