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Intellectual propertylawYour law firm has asked you to review the following intellectual property law case and the relevant documents in preparation for a meeting with the other party's lawyer. Read this description of the facts of the case. What are the legal issues here? Fleming Co. ('Fleming') was a company responsible for assisting new immigrants entering the State of Bloomland. One of its responsibilities was to report certain information, such as dates of arrival and departure. In order to carry this out, Fleming contracted with Linxus Co. ('Linxus'), a software development company, to develop a system that would provide Fleming with access to a database over the Internet. In developing the software, Linxus used some software codes that it had previously designed and used to support website-based databases for other companies. The contract between Fleming and Linxus to develop this software did not contain any express provision regarding ownership of copyright in the new database. When Fleming attempted to sub-license the software to another company, Linxus objected, and a dispute arose regarding what copyright rights Fleming had in the software, if any. Although not expressly written in the contract, Fleming argued that a term should be implied whereby Linxus assigns the copyright to Fleming, thereby granting Fleming the ability to sub-license the software to third parties. Task 1: Speaking Divide into two groups, with one group representing Fleming and one group representing Linxus. 1 Prepare for negotiations with the other party. You should: U identify the legal issues of the case and determine arguments for your side; 0 list the strengths and weaknesses of your side of the case; u decide which parts of the relevant legal documents most strongly support your case and can be used to argue against the other party's case; v make notes for the negotiation: What are your goals? What are you willing to give? What are you not willing to give? 2 Pair up with a representative of the other party and attempt to negotiate a settlement. 3 Report the results of your negotiations to the class. Task2: Writing 1 Rewrite the contract between Fleming and Linxus with your partner from the other side in order to incorporate your negotiated outcome. 2 Write a letter of advice to one of the parties (your choice), in which you outline the legal issues raised by the case, refer to relevant statutes or related cases and provide your opinion as to the likely outcome of the case. e Text1:excerptsfromthe contractbetweenFlemingandLinxus an Internet-based Software for the purposes it for the purposes of and procedures to keep all such regarding the of the information on the development of the Text 2: CopyrightsAct of Bloomland, sections 11and 91 11 (1) The author of a work is the first owner of any copyright in it, subject to the following provisions. (2) Where a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work is made by an employee in the course of his employment, his employer is the first owner of any copyright in the work subject to any agreement to the contrary. 91(1) Where by an agreement made in relation to future copyright, and signed by or on behalf of the prospective owner of the copyright, the prospective owner purports to assign the future copyright (wholly or partially) to another person, then if, on the copyright coming into existence, the assigneeor another person claiming under him would be entitled as against all other persons to require the copyright to be vested in him, the copyright shall vest in the assignee or his successor in title by virtue of this subsection. (2) In this Part, "future copyright" means copyright which will or may come into existence in respect of a future work or class of works or on the occurrence of a future event; and "prospective owner" shall be construed accordingly, and includes a person who is prospectively entitled to copyright by virtue of such an agreement as is mentioned in subsection (1). Text 3: excerpt from a case brief in the State of Bloomland Date: 2015-12-11; view: 2105
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