Week 11: Forced Choice

Alberto, Kristine M.
- Final project was very well INFORMATIVE, very well structured and is very well organized.
Her project is all cited and everything.
Jones, C. J.
- Well done on the final project! Everything is thoughtfully & carefully answered and all the quotes are present. Just needs to be cited.
Oya, Korsyca Ln
- Blog and final project is excellent! Very good quotes and well citation.
Lopez-Estrada, Saul E.
- Very well written final project. Carefully done and all quotes and citations are present!
Mukaya, Adam
- Execllent final project and blog, The final project is well thought of and it seems like they extracted a lot of information. All quotes and citations are present.
Nolan, Stanley S.
- The blog and final project is complete. The citation is a bit incomplete and needs to be instructed on how to cite a book.
Zullo, John A.
- Blog question answers from lawyer are hard to read in blue vs your background. The blog needs MORE QUOTES!
Rodriguez-Delgado, Leslie
- Needs QUOTES for the final project. Otherwise, it was well done!
Reaze, Shantay
- The blog final is done but it needs more quotes.
Fernandez, Joanne
- Finished all sections. Needs more quotes but looks like she understands her lawyer very well and she has good reasoning.
Diamond, Vivian
- Well done blog, has a good understanding of the project and has met all the requirements.
Fernandez, Ryan Louis
- All sections are complete and all the questions are done correctly except I NEED MORE QUOTES!
Chester, Lonnie O
- Final project is well worth over 300 words for each section. Not enough quotes.
Calesing, Katherine Gaerlan
- Her final project was about 80% complete. She had done each of the questions however NO QUOTES! There is to be easily 20 QUOTES and I don’t see one of them in the last 2 questions that were suppose to be stated.
Crissman, Jake Albert
- 5th section is not complete however 4th section is really strong and has good amount of quotes to support there reasoning.
Klatsky, Rebekah Anne
- Incomplete final project. Needs to finish the final project since it is a BIG part of the final grade!
Cassaro, Christina R
- Final section is missing and has only 2 quotes from the book in section 4 and 5.
Armellino, Stephen Joesph
- Needs to be finished! INCOMPLETE FINAL! =)

Week 11: Final Evaluation

Copyrights, negotiations and copyrights course was an excellent course. I learned a lot in this class. I learned how intellectual property and the law works and how the law protects designers and creative minded individuals. I think I did an excellent job in this course since it was very well structured and since we used the blog technology. I think the blog technology really helped me move forward and always kept me up to date and it forced me to learn EVERY WEEK! I understand how the business market is very competitive and how it can be powerful as an individual to know if someone steals your work and how you are protected by the law. I also understand how protection of intellectual property, including trademarks, & patents could protect my future ideas and designs as well as the past work that I have designed. I understand a great deal of legal terminology especially with the patent side. The class was very well informative and I feel that I can now continue my education and career and be able to apply the examples and work that I have done in this class to the real world. I felt that the lawyer project was very challenging since we had to call around and everyone either gave me the run around or flaked out on me! By using the grid for the second half, hit 100% on 17/19 of the required assignment due to some absences. I calculated 17/20 and it came to an 89%. By comparing my original grade in the course for the midterm which was an A and a B+ for the second half, I think I deserve an A- in this course.

Final Project: Did you agree or disagree with the rulings. Provide some authority for your argument such as quotes from the book.

To know who owns the design is an important matter in the design industry, I asked the lawyer who owns the design if the client did not fund it initially or post of the design. “The true owner of the design will be determined by the instrument or contract originally entered into between the parties. If the client did not pay for the work, the designer can still sue for damages and made whole by the court. The court will award at least the costs the designer incurred in developing the design and in any case it would be advised that the designer trademark the design if it has not yet been done.” I totally disagree with the lawyer under this circumstance because this falls directly under copyright law. He stated to trademark the design, but it is a design and to copyright it gives “exclusive rights to make copies, to authorize others to make copies, to sell the work, right to display the work, right to perform the work and the right to obtain in court relief in the event other infringe.” I agreed with the lawyer on packaging issue where other companies use the same color and looks of products such as Tylenol. “Trademark law protects the rights of businesses who use distinct names, designs, logos, and signifiers to identify their products.” It is also very important to understand the difference between copyright and patent. “Copyright law protects all forms of expression fixed in a tangible medium” while patents protect ideas that take the form of useful, novel and nonobvious inventions.” The lawyer was asked if a fashion design was created and displayed at the trade show and someone took the design and sold it as their own, can they sue? He answered “if displayed at a fashion show before the idea was trademarked, then the designer may sue.” However there are also certain rules to this because of statute of limitations. “A person accused of infringing another’s copyright, patent or trademark may argue in defense that the plaintiff waited too long to file suit, that is they violated the statute of limitations. In civil cases, you can’t file suit more than three years after the discovery of the infringment.”

Final Project: Rule of law -- a concise summary of the main precedent established. Support with quotes form the book

Web design, graphic design, and just basically any type of design will have some sort of intellectual property issue or some type of argument. Since these are ideas, work such as art that are ‘produced’ by us designers, we face a career that affects us if we don’t understand how the law within intellectual property protects us. By being a web designer, the world wide web holds a special feature – stealing! And stealing ideas when something is someone else’s work can be punishable in court. “A party who claims to own a mark (the plaintiff) may file a lawsuit against another use of the same or similar mark (the defendant) to prevent further use of the mark and collect money damages for the wrongful use.” If I make a logo and it has a trademark on one of the letters since the letter was custom drawn and embedded into the text and someone uses that custom drawn logo on there logo as well, I can file infringement action towards that party. When helping a client come up with a domain name it is very important to make sure that “The domain name is not infringing a trademark. If a domain name is likely to confuse consumers because it is similar to another trademark, the domain name used may be terminated.” As a website designer in today’s industry, search engine optimization or SEO is a huge factor for search and advertising capability. Metatags are used to describe certain or major keywords that will help the site to be searched and ranked in top 10 of a search engine. “There are some instances when the use of another company’s trademark is permitted in a metatag for example if the tag is used to describe the goods or services of a company or geographic origin.”

Final Project: Reasoning of the Law -- analysis of the thinking process and logic used by your lawyer

My attorney’s answers were to the point and I felt that his answers were very fully answered. The answers were not “legal advice” but his own side and take since he was in the industry. His thinking process was very critical, it seemed like he had to critically think about the situation and put himself in the situation before answering the legal issue. One of the legal issues was if a logo had a trademark to one of the letters and another marketing company used that letter exactly how it is displayed/designed but used the letter in a logo but did not have the same complete logo then can action be taken. He answered this issue in steps or sort of a process that had to be proven in court to win. He answered “If the competitor uses and exact letter trademark design, the original designer must first prove to the court that they properly recorded the trademark design. It will then be up to the competitor to prove that the infringing design was not stolen or copied. The competitor must show that they not intentionally steal the design. Even so, the court may award damages to the original designer or may just force the competitor to stop using the design.” As answered above, his answer was very well put together and explains the process in this type of legal situation. My lawyers thinking process by answering them as a professional seemed like it would be totally different if I went to him and actually had a case similar to the one above. I assume that if I had a case similar he would actually be taking notes down and using references and other types of sources to understand the case better to win the case.

Final Project: Explain why these are of interest to you. What specific concepts and terms were involved – in other words, what are the legal issues?

There are a lot of legal issues that are a big interest in my life, my career and my personal life. Since we had to choose legal issues that pertain to our career, I went ahead and followed the prompt and chose legal issues that deal specifically with intellectual property and how trademarks, patents and copyrights can protect our rights to our designs and our ideas. I asked questions like it is possible to sue the company for use of digital media? I also asked questions like, can I sue a party and what are my chances of recovering my design. Some trademark issues I had in question were if I made a logo that had a trademark to one of the letters and another marketing company used that letter exactly how it is displayed/designed but used the letter in a logo but did not have the same complete logo then what could happen if I take legal action. I also brought up legal issue where companies that advertise a television commercial which sells a product that has a disclaimer at the bottom but doesn’t give you enough time to read the disclaimer and it ends up affecting your life and puts you in burden. I also asked copyright/trademark issues like can packaging look exactly the same as other products on a retail shelf with example of medicine. And lastly I asked a question that dealt with my logo, if I didn’t copyright a creation of mine and someone from my design team take it, can I take legal action.

Final Project: Legal Authority How I made contact, found this person and why they are a good choice.

Choosing a lawyer for any type of outside project, internship or some type of classwork or project is NOT the easiest task for educational purposes. I tried about 15-20 local lawyers of different fields and they sure are very hard to get a hold of. First of all, its tough enough to get past the receptionist and you have to have some real good story to why you want to talk to the lawyer. You have to almost make it seem like you have a possible case in hand! Out of the approximate 20 attorneys I contacted, I was able to talk to two of them and they said they did not have the time to help me because they were just really crammed with work. So I decided to call friends to see if they knew someone who could help me and even contacted family. It turns out one of my long lost cousins who I barely speak to was a lawyer. He told me he graduated for Cooley Law School in Michigan and ended up in Las vegas. It was really hard to interview him over the phone because his time was very valuable so I ended up emailing him my legal issues and he emailed back with answers and of course he gave me 30 mins of his valuable time and we talked about the legal issues and it was very interesting to see how he responded since his expertise is tax law. This was a great choice because he truly helped me out and now I know I have family who can help me out incase if I am in trouble with my career or personal life.

EOC Week 9: First Amendment & the News

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law "respecting an establishment of religion", impeding the free exercise of religion, infringing on the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.Originally, the First Amendment only applied to the Congress. However, starting with Gitlow v. New York, 268 U.S. 652 (1925), the Supreme Court held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies the First Amendment to each state, including any local government.
In the movie there was one female justice and the rest were men. All the men justice’s were being sexist and not allowing the female justice to not have her say and have her opinion. Since the film that was in question was dirty it was a type of disrespect to the public and the communities in Nebraska and the community wanted the tape to be burned, and destroyed. I think it is only fair to be able to follow the first amendment as it currently stands. That is by respecting an establishment of religion, free exercise of religion, infringing on the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press.

EOC Week 8: Legal Questions

1. If my child was having a bad day and giving me a hard time and spanked him in public what would be the consequences as a parent?

2. What are your rights when an officer makes a traffic stop and requests a vehicle search when there are no probable cause or signs that you are doing anything wrong?

3. If I was to go into a Wal-Mart with $100 cash in my wallet and ended up shoplifting something, how would they treat the case if it was not my intent to steal to begin with?

4. I sell on eBay and there are buyers who make purchases and switch good parts for bad parts and claim that the item I sent them was DOA or NON FUNCTIONAL, what can happen to these buyers if they are caught or I have proof that the parts were swapped?

5. If someone stole my idea and I have all the digital media to prove it was my work, is this a possible case in court? Can I sue the company my stolen work was sold to?

6. A minor child was killed at the hands of the child’s mother. Child Protective Services were sent to the home several times prior to the child’s death to report child abuse against the now deceased victim. Would the father be able to sue child protective services for neglect to prevent this from happening and what would be his chance of winning the case?

7. If I create a fashion design and displayed it at a trade show , and someone took that design and sold it as their own, can I sue that party and what are my chances of recovering my design?

8. If I made a logo that had a had a trademark to one of the letters and another marketing company used that letter exactly how it is displayed/designed but used the letter in a logo but did not have the same complete logo then what could happen if I take legal action.

9. Can packaging look exactly the same as other products on a retail shelf (ex. Medicine products Color, Shape, Look). **EXCLUDES the name.

10. Can you sue a company that advertises a commercial which sells a product that has a disclaimer at the bottom but don’t give you enough time to read the disclaimer and it ends up affecting your life or puts you in burden?

EOC Week 7: What legal issues concern you most?

They are a ton of legal issues that concern me. There are many subjects that concern me because they are issues that affect myself or close family & friends. One of the biggest issues I have is stealing. I hate stealers and the intent and nature of what they do. When I say stealing, you probably are thinking of many ways how someone can steal. I am a design/web major and I have a big issue with people stealing my work. The work that I sweat and spend many hours on is so easy to steal on the world wide web. If it involves me designing an a design and someone else taking that design and making it better is considered stealing my work because I have already began the work for them and usually they steal it to edit and make money off. Another legal issue I have an issue with is sex crimes. There are a lot of nasty and sick people in this world and I feel that they should be separated from society and isolated in some sort of remote place where society is nowhere nearby. I am from San Diego where there is a lot of sex offenders and I am usually up to date with all the news and legal issues that are going on. For example the Chealsea King Case with John Gardner. I mean that guy is full of S*** and the way he laughed in an interview makes me angry and makes me just want me to punch him. These type of people prey on innocent girls that have bright futures and something should be done especially if they already have some type of history or background of this nature.

EOC Week 6: Illicit? What do you think?

finish

EOC Week 4: 10 of the Most Meaningful Patent Terms

1. Patent
2. Office Action
3. Licensing of an invention
4. Inventor
5. GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade)
6. Field of invention
7. Exclusive patent license
8. Electronic filing of patent applications
9. Design Patents
10.Date of Invention

EOC Week 3: Jeopardy

Jeopardy is a great game. It is the game for the smart and intelligent. I always watch the game on television and I feel that the questions that the players answer are always hard. I never realized that building the question and making sure the question is properly structured is a big issue. Making the question requires a thought process that equals to a “what is” answer. I found that using definitions that had more than one word in them such as “date of application” was sort of tricky and always read wrong after written. The game is always hard to build because you need to create an easy to hard environment such as one hundred dollar to a five hundred dollar question. Making sure the question is harder is a critical point of building a successful Jeopardy game. In the real game, it seems like the questions are super hard but for this educational purpose, I think this is a great way or learning definitions for our copyright, trademark, and patents class. I think making the game is hard, but it will pay off later when we actually take the test and are able to use the game as a reference for learning.

EOC Week 2: What do you think of lawyers?

I personally think lawyers are great people especially when it comes to money. It’s definitely a money gamble and money hungry type of game. There are tons of cases and situations out there that many of us know of and there are tons of cases out there that could have a potential case with lots of money on the table. I think it’s great how lawyers make their money and how they can jump the price of a settlement amount from point a to point b and be able to pay off their home. It’s also crazy how lawyers sometimes don’t make any money for years and spend years on a case and have to live at bare minimum and be able to support themselves plus pay large fees to get info and invest into a case. Personally, I would never be a lawyer because it’s kind of a gamble. It’s one of those professions that I think isn’t stable if you end up not being a good lawyer. I know for a fact that there are good lawyers and there are bad lawyers. I had a lawyer once represent me in a car accident case that was valued at six thousand dollars. Another lawyer that estimated my settlement at fourteen thousand dollars. With the difference in amounts, I was thinking “is this a good lawyer or a bad lawyer.” I went ahead and paid out the retainer fees for the 14k lawyer and he took 45% of my settlement which I did not read in the fine print. I then went to a contract lawyer to see if I could somehow reverse that contract, but it was my responsibility to know what I was signing. So in my sense, there are definitely shady lawyers who don’t release all the info verbally or who don’t let you understand it. They sometimes take advantage of their clients.

EOC Week 1: About Me

ABOUT ME

Hi my name is Ryan Fernandez, I am web designer who loves to make user friendly and out of the box websites. I was inspired into this business by making designs for entertainment companies who needed marketing material for print. I soon realized that marketing has more than graphical elements print so I decided to pursue web design as a business and a degree. The web design industry is a very competitive market and I feel my ideas and logic decisions play a big role in the industry. There are many people out there who do web design and make it a business or work for a company. Many of them have a degree or have lots of past experience to do this type of work. I feel that going to school and pursuing a degree, puts me in a better position and makes me an asset to a company. There are a lot of $500 web designers out there who build a web site from a template and edit and launch to the world wide web. I love building a website from scratch. I love branding a company and making sure there identity creates an image that fits there look and company. A custom website for any company is ideal instead of using those templates that everyone around the world uses is what everyone these days should be doing. I feel that there is no possible way to learn all the languages web design offers, but I feel that you should only learn them if you need to know them.