Law/421
xxNamexx
Month xx, 2012
A contract dispute between two businesses is very common. Litigations are handled in state courts or federal courts and during the arbitration. The disputes commonly involve intellectual property, privacy, ethics, and security. Many business to business contract disputes will include construction companies, real estate, Insurance claims, and in some cases they will include television stations. Upon reading an article with the famous TV show the Simpsons and the contract dispute with CBS, the show was almost canceled due to a contract dispute.
The dispute between CBS and the TV show the Simpsons was over the salaries of the cast members. This would not be classified as an intellectual property legal issue. Intellectual property (IP) typically involves patents, trademarks, industrial design, copyrights and artistic work. Since it is much easier to prove that you own a physical object than it is to prove that you own an invention. In the contract dispute between CBS and the Simpsons it was more of an ethical issue that took place (CBS News, 2011).
Disputes such as the dispute between CBS and the cast of the Simpsons still would not fall under patents, copyrights or trademarks. Patents are for an invention to grant property rights to the inventor. A patent is valid for 20 years from the date on the application. A copyright is a protection for the authors of original work. If the dispute had been over the Simpsons and another’s use of the catchy quote “d’oh” it would have fallen under the trademark protection. Trademarks are the rights to prevent others from using similar marks, or prevent others from making the same goods or even selling the same goods under a different mark. The only way to protect a name, short phrase or other text is to register it as a trademark.
Privacy is common dispute and is covered by the Privacy Act. There are many types of privacy issues such as physical or bodily