Week 8 EOC : Bratz vs. Mattel

The battle between Mattel and MGA is quite ridiculous. Right now, this case is like a game of tug-of-war. The court is in the middle and you have Mattel and MGA trying to get the court to rule in their favor. This case has been overturned quite a few times, first in favor of Mattel which was awarded 100 million dollars under the case of whether Barbie's clothing designer was still under contract when he came up with the Bratz design. "In 2008, a jury concluded that Barbie doll clothing designer Carter Bryant was under contract to Mattel when he came up with the initial design for the Bratz dolls. The jury awarded Mattel $100 million, and the trial judge ruled that the Bratz franchise was the property of Mattel."(under course shell description) This ruling was overturned by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals by this reasoning, "it was unfair to give Mattel the Bratz line, because its value was "overwhelmingly" created by MGA." Just recently these two companies were at it again, but this time it was MGA who was coming out swinging. They were suing Mattel for using fake business cards to get access to MGA's toy shows so they could see what they were coming out with, so basically to steal their ideas. That isn't a farfetched story at all, it all likely could be true. That's what the jury thought and MGA won 172.5 million dollars. Then not too far down the road, once again, the federal appeals court threw out the verdict and said, "the company’s counterclaims shouldn’t have been allowed to go to the jury." (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-24/mga-bratz-win-over-mattel-partly-erased-by-appeals-court.html) There's so many flaws that are appearing in our court systems. One thing might be right in one court, but then they take it to a higher court and they throw out the verdict. The law is a crazy, ridiculous thing. After having the verdict thrown out twice, I would have done with it. Why doesn't MGA and Mattel just join forces and become a huge monopoly, oh wait, those are illegal...whoops.

Week 8 BOC: Progress on Final Project

For this class' final project, my progress is starting off slowly. I have been looking up lawyers that are possible interviewees to answer the questions that I'll cook up. Just a week ago, I ran into an old friend, who recently just graduated from UNLV somewhere in the law division. He dropped a hint that he works as a law clerk, for a law firm that I forgot. My friend said, once I figure everything out, that he would be able to get into direct contact with his law firm and we can conduct the interview. I'm still a little confused on how I should form my questions and what I should ask. Hopefully I get inspired soon because I'm running out of time. I think I will look at the definitions in the book at try to formulate questions from there. Overall in this class, I am pretty much caught up on everything. I still have to do update one blog when we watched the movie on the black market. Once I get caught up on this blog, I'll be able to fully focus on this class' final project.

EOC Week 7: Lawyers

Preston Sterling Kerr - 702-608-0835
Frank J. Colucci - (212) 935-5700 Ext 200
Michael D. Rounds -  775.324.4100 
Robert H. Reynolds -702-997-0467
Kendelee Leascher Works - (702)-382-4804
Maria Nutile - 702-307-4870

John Lambertsen - 702-997-1732

Mary F. Chapman - 702-800-3362

Randy Shimon - (702) 312-4175

Brian C. Whitaker - (702) 433-9696

EOC Week 6: Illicit: The Dark Trade

The movie Illicit: The Dark Trade brings to surface a dark and nasty deed that is going on around the world and how it is affecting every single industry today. It affects the fashion world, from the making and selling of counterfeit, Prada/Louie Vuitton, to the audio/video industry in the terms of downloading music and movies for free. It doesn't just stop there, but as with drugs, no surprise but there, then it also includes human trafficking. To hear that parts of the world are trafficking humans all over the world is quite absurd to say the least. Who knew that people could make tons of money trafficking humans, anyone these days will do anything to make a quick buck. Also these counterfeiting schemes have found their way into our pharmaceutical drugs. That is unbelievable! Now people have to worry about if they are taking the real deal when it comes to there prescription. In the movie they talked about this guy who was making millions of dollars selling fake Viagra to people all over the world. He was making so much money, so fast he couldn't put it in a bank, and he started spending thousands of dollars since he couldn't do anything else with the money. Being an audio production major and musician myself, I can see where these people are coming from, people stealing their hard work right from under them. Depending on who the artist is and the person they are determines their outlook on the subject. Most bands don't make money selling albums anymore since they are available on the internet just about anywhere. They will make most of their money touring the world, performing for their adoring fans. To me music was made for listening and to show people. If people are downloading your music, you must be doing something right since they want to listen to you. I show support for bands by going to their shows and buying their expensive shirts, but it's all worth it. This illegal world of the black market plays a huge impact on the world and the people that inhabit it.

Week 5 EOC: Patent Trolls

The definition of Patent Troll is a disparaging term for someone who sues for patent infringement but who does not make or sell any products using the patented technology. (Patent, Copyright and Trademark An Intellectual Property Desk Reference, Pg. 137) In this article of The Wall Street Journal called, "New Breed of Patent Claim Bedevils Product Makers" they talk about these "patent trolls" who are going out and looking for companies who are putting fake patent numbers on their products. This is quite sickening to me knowing that their are people out there doing this. It's like they don't have anything else to do with themselves besides be a troll and find a way to make easy money. "According to Chicago-based merchant bank Ocean Tomo, which tracks patent suits, nearly 350 federal lawsuits have been filed since the December appellate court ruling."("New Breed of Patent Claim Bedevils Product Makers," Wall Street Journal) The world patent troll is perfect for all these people that are in the patent business only for suing. They are truly Americans from that point, since everyone just wants to sue everyone and make a bunch of money. Times are hard so lets just sue everyone. This is unbelievable, it truly is. A good example would be of The Tompkins, a wife and patent, who have sued more than a dozen companies for expired patents. ("Mr. Tompkins says he heard about the December federal-court ruling from lawyer friends. He and his wife then spent hours poring over Internet advertising to check for outdated patents on products." ("New Breed of Patent Claim Bedevils Product Makers," Wall Street Journal)  Unfortunately there is no way to get rid of trolls in the world since they are stuck behind their computers searching the internet for more out of date patents on products. All these patent trolls are just lazy people who want to make some quick money no matter how it's done.