Spain. Senor Martinez will be taking care of further

paperwork, and when he's sure everything is in order, he'll

Withdraw the money from your account and hand it over to

The Seller. Senor Martinez can then sign the relevant part of

the contract. Once the rest of the money's been transferred

To your Spanish account, the final documents will be signed

On the completion date.

Mr Watson: Do I have to be there for the signing?

Ms Blackwell: No, Senor Martinez will represent you, and he,

The Seller and the estate agent - as well as a representative

of the bank if you've arranged a mortgage - will undertake

The signing in the presence of a notary. Then the money and

the keys will be exchanged, and the house is yours!

Mr Watson: Sounds great!

Unit 11

Listening1

Well, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm going to be

Talking to you today about a hot topic in the area of intellectual

property law. It's the topic of business-method patents. It's an

area where a lot of change is occurring right now, and so It's

Quite exciting. One of the senior partners of the firm, Mr

Whittaker, has told me that the firm's just landed an important

New client with a case involving a business-method patent for

an Internet sales application. I'm told it deals with a one-click

ordering solution. I understand that you'll be shadowing the

senior lawyer assigned to this case, and so I'll be covering the

Topic with you in detail.

I'll begin with the basics, and then we'll move on to look at a

few landmark cases. Each of you'll be assigned one case to

research and then to present to the group - don't worry, you'll

Have plenty of time to do the research between sessions - and

then you'll summarise the case for the others. Finally, I'll

Discuss the present situation and some recent holdings. Feel

Free to interrupt me at any time if you have any questions.

Right. Well, allow me to start by going over what happens when

A person tries to get proprietary rights for their invention.

Naturally, an application is submitted to the patent office. The

Examiners at the patent office decide whether an invention

Deserves to be awarded a patent on the basis of certain

Standards. These standards - also known as requirements -

Are set forth in the patent statutes, as you know. But what are

these standards? What determines the patentability of an

invention? Let's have a look at the requirements.

The first requirement is that the invention must be useful. This

is also known as the 'utility requirement'. This requirement is

Met if the invention is operable and if the invention provides

what's known as a 'tangible benefit'. 'Tangible' in this case

means 'substantial' or 'real', so that we can say that utility

Refers to a real benefit that the invention provides.

The second requirement is that the invention must be novel.

Naturally, 'novel' means 'new', in the sense that the invention

mustn't be anticipated by another patent which has already been

Granted or by knowledge which is already in the public domain.

The third requirement's called 'non-obviousness'. This word

Refers to the quality of something being not obvious to a

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 744