EOC Week 9 The First Amendment and the News

Recently in the news, Rev. Terry Jones proposed to burn down the Koran on September 11. Obviously, from what had happened on Ground Zero, people are inflamed about the thought of even putting a Koran that close to the site. Many people are for this, and many people are against it. To me, its definitely an awkward situation. I think I am more against it than for it at this point because of how severe the attack was on New York. The big deal with this though is the thought of the First Amendment which states "The First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects the right to freedom of religion and freedom of expression from government interference. See U.S. Const. amend. I. Freedom of expression consists of the rights to freedom of speech, press, assembly and to petition the government for a redress of grievances, and the implied rights of association and belief.

EOC Week 8 Legal Questions

If a company give you a design and didn’t know it was inspired by another company and you didn’t know anything about it, can you still be sued?

What is the best response to a non compete disclosure contract? (what’s the best way to handle it)

Is it possible to modify an existing design and use it as my own?

What rights do I retain when using company software?

If you do a design, etc. for a client and are not paid for it, does the actual design belong to you or the client?

How much do people charge to read a contract, or advice/interpreter?

Can you be inspired by a competitors work and use it against them, at the same time changing it into a different design?

If I lose inspiration and go online and use someone else’s design, more than I intended to. Will I be safe from a lawsuit if I changed it enough so it isn’t exactly the same? What recourse do I have if the roles are reversed, if my work is the work being stolen?

If I create a design for a company, can I still distribute the same design to other companies?

Am I entitled to full rights of a design if i were to create it within a group?

BOC Week 10 Lawyer Jokes

What do you call a lawyer gone bad?

Your honor.

What do you call a judge gone bad?

Senator.

-http://www.lawyer-jokes.us/

What do you call 5000 dead lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?

A good start!

-http://www.lawyer-jokes.us/

How does an attorney sleep?
First he lies on one side, and then on the other.

-http://brainden.com/lawyer-jokes.htm

How do you get a group of lawyers to smile for a picture?
Just say "Fees!"

-http://brainden.com/lawyer-jokes.htm

Week 7 EOC Interesting legal issues

In class, we were asked to research and to think about the different and specific issues that interests us in our society. Whether it has to do with our major, or even something to do in our city, it has to be of our individual interests. During our class, the topic of legalizing marijuana was brought up. This is one of the more interesting issues, I think, because of the region that we are in being next to California. Not only are we beside the state that is trying to legalize it, but marijuana billboards have reached us as well. Another big issue I might want to get more in depth with is the prostitution issues in Nevada. What are the issues? How are they trying to stop it? Many of these questions will be asked, but we are only required to think of 10 different questions. On a more personal note, I am a little interested in the consequences of lying under oath as well. Recently, baseball player Roger Clemens was indicted on six-counts that he allegedly obstructed a congressional inquiry with 15 different statements made while under oath, including denials that he had ever used steroids or human growth hormone. I am interested to know the consequences of his actions if he is found guilty and how they go about finding out if he was really lying. In conclusion, some of the issues that I am trying to focus on are the Legalization of Marijuana, Prostitution, Lying under oath, and I am working on coming up with others.

Week 4 EOC Meaningful Terms

Blocking Patent
Design Around
Patent Agent
Patent Infringement
Cross-Licensing
Drawings
CCPA (Court of Customs and Patent Appeals
Co-Inventors
Conception
Design Patents

Week 3 EOC Jeopardy

Today in class we did something a little different than usual. Our main assignment and homework is to create a Jeopardy-like game on PowerPoint using questions about patents of course. Toward the beginning of the assignment I was trying to just get the rhythm of looking for terms I want to use and also thinking up the questions, or rather the wording of the questions. It wasn’t too bad after a while, so here are a couple of the questions I thought up; “This term has been used to describe a group of utility patents issued for software programs.” For those who don’t know the answer, it is a Utility Patent. The main thing I was trying to focus on was wording the description correctly so the person answering the question knows what I’m talking about. Another one was; “They are non-attorneys with technical training who are legally permitted to draft, file, and prosecute patent applications on behalf of inventors.” The answer for that question is obviously Patent Agents. While I was thinking of some of these descriptions, it really put in perspective how hard and tedious it is to create a show like Jeopardy because at the same time you want the questions to be hard enough that the players has to think but easy enough to have a good chance of knowing the answer.

Week 2 EOC What do you think about lawyers?

Lawyers? Personally I don’t hate or like them, all I know is that we need them. Whether it’s a minor misdemeanor to a first degree act, to me lawyers are helpful and not at the same time. In class we watched a movie on a lawyer who was introduced to a random mother who needed a job. The lawyer purposely didn’t return the calls because of personal reasons and maybe he didn’t need her work. After her attempt to get an interview, the lawyer ended up giving her a temporary job. As the story moves on, she actually helped the lawyer solve a case that was worth upwards of about $200 million. A perfect example of lawyers being helpful. In other cases, lawyers just try to get a win in the courtroom which is sometimes not helpful at all. Although I never really needed a lawyer in my life, I still think that they are a good source for advice in any legal situation. I know I don’t know the least about laws and other related subjects so if I did ever need one, I’d look into the direction of getting a more widely known lawyer than a freelance lawyer just needing another case. When the professor told us that the case was worth $200 million, I can definitely see why lawyers are so uptight and organized; because so much money is at stake and one case can affect your whole career. Although being a lawyer isn’t one of my personal goals, being a lawyer wouldn’t be a bad paying job.