Business Law and Consumer Rights

Introduction:

Business law is considered as the body of legal practices that are related to the functions, activities, relations, rights and conducts of individuals and businesses associated with business activities like trade, commerce, merchandising, buying, selling etc. Business law can be practiced in both public and private ways with the association of civil and other laws (Bently and Sherman, 2014). In this Business law assignment, the major principles that govern legal relationship between businesses and their consumers are discussed along with the rules that govern consumer credit and legal practices of different agency. In addition, rules and practices of mergers, monopolies and anti-competitive practices are also discussed. Finally, a detailed understanding is provided regarding practices and provisions related to intellectual property rights as per the given scenario.

Task 1:

1.1 When terms canor cannot be implied into the contract of sale of goods or for the provision of services’

In order to give it legal adjustment and reduce the possibility of any dispute during the time or even after, the selling process of goods must be conducted as per the procedure stated according to the legal authority. In order to make the law simple and easily understandable, it talks about both expressed and implied terms regarding the contract of sales of goods and provisions of service. According to Sale of good act (1979), in some special cases, the terms can be implied. Other than these cases, the terms must be clearly stated and presented in an understandable way. According to the law, the major description of the goods, its price and other relevant circumstances that might affect the goods and provision of services must be stated in expressed term. On the other hand, fitness of the stated goods in the desired circumstances can be stated as implied term of the contract (Clark, 2016). Another implied term is that both parties are required to execute the business (sale of goods or provision of service) as per the previously agreed price on the contract. In addition, appearance and finish of the goods, safety, freedom of minor defect regarding the goods and services and its durability are covered by implied terms.

1.2 Statutory transfers of legal and possessory titles

After the successful completion of sale of goods or provision of service, it is required to transfer the title of the possession to the buyer (who has agreed to pay or already paid the agreed price of the possession). While transferring the legal and possessory titles, the goods need to be registered by the incoming owner (if necessary according to law). In order to apply for statutory transfer of title (of fixed goods and land), it is required to produce a registry which is supported by an unbroken chain of deeds. This term is called as “epitome” of the title and according to this term, if the previous owner own the goods or land for more or less 15 years, then his/her conveyance is required to transfer the title. If the applicant of the title doesn’t have sufficient document or evidence about his/her possession of the goods, then possessory title is provided. It is possible to transfer possessory title in some special cases, but legal transfer of the title require the possessory title to become absolute title (Baron and Baron, 2013). If the goods or land is registered as possessory title for at least 15 years with continuous consent and no adverse complaint, then the owner can make application to make the possessory complaint to absolute complaint and legally transfer the title.

1.3 Evaluate buyers’ and sellers’ statutory remedies for breach of contracts

In a contract (or formal agreement) different parties can participate with certain legal bindings. It is possible that one or more parties might fail to obey or intentionally break certain terms of agreement. Such kind of breach of contract might hamper the interest of buyer and seller and both of these parties seek statutory remedies for such breach and loss. According to English Contract Law, there are five type of statutory remedies available for both buyers and sellers to give them protection against breach of contracts. These five are Money damage, Restitution, Rescission, Reformation and Specific Performance (Bernstein, 2016). Money damage make sure that the buyer or seller, whoever face loss because of the breach of the contract might receive a partial or full monetary compensation. Two types of money damage; compensative damage and punitive damage, are widely used as statutory remedies. As per the scenario of Mr and Mrs Green, Easy build Ltd is bound to pay the amount to restore the house as per the designated design. On the other hand, Restitution can also be used in the scenario of Mr and Mrs Green. Easy build Ltd has to restore the loss of the injured party to make sure that his/her position is same as before the contract. Under the restitution, the buyer or seller is bound to give back the money, goods or any other property to the plaintiff and compensate for his/her loss (Cohen, 2013). Recession of the contract takes place when the court or any other legal authority terminate the contract for both parties. On the other hand, as per Reformation, the court or the legal authority reform the contract to make sure the proper balance of right and interest of both buyer and seller.

1.4 Principles of product liability to given scenarios

Product liability held the manufacturer responsible for placing defective product or destruction of the product or possible loss or hamper by using the product. As per the case study, G and H Holmes (A local financial services company) reached Hopkins Limited (A local furniture supplier) to refurbish its furnisher. According to the agreement, Hopkins Limited was required to deliver some specially made furnishers as per the requirement of G and H Holmes. But these furnisher were destroyed by fire in possession of Hopkins Limited right before the night deliver to G and H Holmes. According to the product liability principle "res ipsa loquitur, or "the thing speaks for itself," the product liability must be carried out by the defendant(s). As per this principle, the defect issue (fire incident) would not possibly not take place unless the defendant was not negligent (Viera and Garrett, 2005). If this principle of product liability is successfully raised, the plaintiff (G and H Holmes) is not required to prove how the defendant (Hopkins Limited), rather the defendant (Hopkins Limited) is required to prove that it was not negligent during the fire incident. In addition, as the incident took place before the final delivery of the product and the furniture was in possession of (Hopkins Limited), the defendant (Hopkins Limited) is fully liable for the incident and makes compensation to G and H Holmes. In this regard, the consumer protection act 2019 is also there to protect the customers (G and H Holmes), where they can get proper protection under the jurisdiction of the product liability and customers protection. The law is effective to protect the customers where as per the scenario; it is not the fault of the buyers rather the seller fails to deliver the items in such situation of fire at the site. Though it is not also the fault of the seller, but the seller is liable to give compensation for such situation where the customers can get their payment back for undelivered items. Additionally, as per the case of Julia, Julia rides scooter which is manufactured in Italy by Zambettra but is sold in the UK as a Vasca scooter. A month later, break fails and she crashes and the relevant authority sated that it is totally the fault of the manufacturer of the brake mechanism where the brakes are sold as a sealed unit, manufactured by French company. Hence, it is the liability of the manufacturer where Julia must get proper payment and insurance policy for the incident. The brake failure is a dangerous accident where Julia suffers permanent scarring to her face and the scooter suffers £900 worth of damage. It is the fault of the manufacturer, not the mistake of Julia during riding it. Thus, it is the responsibility of the manufacturer to get back the scooter and make the necessary changes at free of cost. Under the statutory provision of the product liability, Julia must get full payment and insurance coverage o such incident where it is totally the fault of the manufacturer.

1M1 Appraise the rationale for innominate terms

In modern English law, innominate terms are considered as the terms that are mostly contractual, doesn’t indicate clear meaning and refer to a condition or warranty. Innominate terms are mostly used to reduce the verbosity of the contract or agreement and give significance to all participating parties. The fundamental principles and terms of the contract or the agreement are considered in the innominate terms, rather than the facts. In adverse conditions like breach of contract, innominate terms provide legal rights to the participating parties. In such cases, to reduce the probability and degree of disputes, innominate terms provide three types of legal aspects to the contract or agreement. These three are terms of the contract (or agreement, warranties and conditions (Cornish and Aplin, 2013). Apart from the expressed terms, implied terms are also considered while inspecting the disputes or investigating to identify the legal standing on the breach of contract. In addition, conditions of the participating parties, matter or subject of the contract or agreement and associated terms are also considered while considering in nominate terms to solve disputes or breach of contract.

Task 2:

2.1 Differentiate between types of credit agreements

A credit agreement is considered as a legal contract between a borrower and a lender. Such kind ofcontract have a clear direction about the amount of money borrowed/lend, repayment period, interest rate and amount, fees and related costs and other rules and requirement related to the loan. There are mainly four types of credit agreement. A credit transaction is a type of credit agreement in which payment of the loan (for particular goods or services) are deferred. In addition, interest and other fees on the loan are paid on the full amount, though the full payment of the loan amount is not received (Fleiss, 2011). A credit transaction is also called as a pawn transaction, an instalment agreement, a discount transaction etc. In an incidental credit agreement, a particular good or service is provided to consumer instead of any monetary amount. If the price of the provided product or service is not paid within a specific period of time, it will be rendered as a credit agreement (combining the actual price, interest and other charges). On the other hand, an instalment agreement is such a credit agreement in which a moveable property is sold based on the term that the price of the property will be paid over a period of time in instalments and possession of the property will be transferred to the consumer either with completion of the instalments or payment of first instalment or a down payment (Joyce et al, 2016). The restricted credit agreement is protected by Consumer Credit Act 1974 which is also regulated by consumer credit agreement. This is secured where the return policy is structured properly between the borrower and lender and it is effective for transaction. On the other hand, unrestricted credit agreement is different where the return on the investment is not predicted at the initial stage and for example liquidity ratio is unrestricted which is fluctuating over the period of time as per the agreement of credit flows. Under unrestricted credit, there is negotiation about the agreement and other transactions which is not restructured under any terms and condition.

2.2 Apply termination rights and default notices to given scenarios

When a contract or agreement takes place, either party has the right to terminate the contract or agreement in middle for different reasons; poor performance, breach of contract or agreement by any party, fails to maintain the monetary payment etc. While terminating right, the party who is going to terminate it needs to provide a default notice to other party (or parties) (Heymann, 2007). According to the scenario given in the module, as per the HP agreement, a customer is required to pay a total price of £7,000 (£1840 deposit and 24 monthly payments of £215). Now he had lost his job and needs to terminate the agreement. After paying 3 instalments (and the fourth is not yet due), the customer needs to pay £4300. After paying four instalments, the customer needs to pay £3870. After paying 12 instalments and the goods purchased have been damaged, the customer needs not to pay anything and can terminate the right with a given notice. An agent is a person employed to do any act to represent another in dealing with third person and the person for whom the acts are done and who is represented is called the principles. The agency is the place where relationship between the agent and the principle is developed. The termination right and default notice can be issued by the principle, due to damages of products or any other issues, happened with the product. It is possible for the agent and principle to collaborate and manage the whole process cooperatively. In case of any damages, the principle can apply for termination of the contract under the scenario.

2.3 Distinguish between actual, apparent and implied agency

According to the agreement, an agent has a legal binding to conform the duties and responsibilities and authority conferred by his/her principals. There are mainly three types of agency relationship; actual agency, apparent agency and implied agency. In an actual or expressed agency, the agent is actually hired or told by the principals about his responsibility and authority for a specific period of time or continuous basis. The agent has a legal binding to bear certain risks regarding the agency relationship and subject matter. On the other hand, in an apparent agency relationship, a principal’s activity or word or even a relationship makes a third party to believe that the principal handed over agency authority to a certain agent, even though the principal and the agent never had a formal discussion about such authority or relationship (Shavell, 2010). In an implied agency relationship, an agent gets agency authority by virtue of the activity of the principal. If an individual receives a payment from the principle or a sign of binder, then the individual might have the responsibility to act as an agent with some responsibilities and authorities.

2.4 Evaluate the rights and duties of an agent

When a principal and an agent enter into a formal agency relationship that brings the agent some legal rights from the principal and duties to the principal. An agent have three rights; right of remuneration, lien on goods and right to be indemnified. According to right of remuneration, the agent is entitled to receive an agreed remuneration or a reasonable remuneration in absence of agreement for the rendered service. The principal needs to make the payment as soon as the service is rendered. As per the lien of goods, the agent might need to receive the possession of goods, securities or any other properties for a specific time period. Besides, the agent possess the right to be indemnified for all kinds of charges, expenses, and liabilities of the principal. One of the major duties of the agent is that he/she must take responsibility for the product or service or relationship rendered by the principal to him and the principal has the right to sue against the agent if otherwise happens (Burton, 2010). In addition, the agent has to follow the direction of the principal strictly and cannot be act as a sub-agent of another principal without the previous consent of the principal. The agent has to use his highest level of skills and diligences to render the service assigned by the principal.

2D1 Assess the balance between the protection offered to lenders and creditors

In case of credit agreement or any other type of loan contract, both the creditors and lender need to comply with the terms of the established agreement or contract. Such kind of accordance gives both parties (creditors and lenders) their own rights and responsivities regarding the loan. So, the protection offered to both creditors and lenders are needed to be balanced in such a way that it ensure equity and reduce the possibility of discrimination and dispute. The protections that are offered to creditors include that he/she should gave a full explanation regarding the loan amount, interest rate and amount, minimum repayment amounts, maximum repayment periods, default and its consequences, available ways to consolidate the loan amount, and other relevant terms. Before taking any adverse decision, the creditor has the right to have a minimum 15 days’ notice prior its execution and must have floor to give explanation if necessary (Cohen, 2018).If the loan is sold, then the lender must give a 30 days’ notice to the borrower and provide a detailed recalculation if necessary. One of the major protection offered to the lenders include that he is legally entitled to receive the repayment of the full amount (principal and interest) after completion of the credit period. If the creditor fails to repay the loan in time, the lender is entitled to sell the lien to recover the loan amount or take legal step against the creditor. Any types of change in the terms and provisions of the loan need to be made with the consent of the lender. Protection offered to both creditors and lenders must be executed in such a manner that it doesn’t violate the rights and responsibilities of these two parties.

Task 3:

3.1 Appraise the UK and EU anti-trusts laws

The UK anti-trust law comprises of the Competition Act 1998 and the Enterprise Act 2002 and major provisions of the anti-trust law are extracted from these two. These two acts sufficiently provides an integrated framework for proper identification and way to deal within a restrictive business environment and reduce the possibility of abuse of a dominant market position. According to UK anti-trust law, if the companies operating within the UK are engaged in restrictive practice that restrict, distort or prevent competition, they are subject to monetary or other penalty or even permanent closer of business activities. Firms are allowed to make horizontal agreement to limit their output, fix price of the product and service, collect capital etc.(De Aghion, 2016). In addition, firms are not allowed to maintain dominant position in a market with an intention to abuse the position by creating price discrimination, competitive advantage, restrict competition, setting predatory and excessive price etc. On the other hand, EU anti-trust law is comprised with Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and European Union merger law. According to these laws, competition among business organisations and business individuals within the European single market will be maintained by ensuring fair and healthy competition, barring the creation of cartel and pool, discoursing monopolies and maintain the best interest of the society. Firms are not allowed to create market dominance with an intention to abuse this position and gain excessive profit (under article 102 TFEU). In addition, all types of joint venture, merger and acquisition must be authorized before it takes place.

3.2 Evaluate the function and effectiveness of the Financial Conduct Authority and the Competition and Market Authority

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) was established in 2013 to regulate and conduct financial services in the UK. FCA regulates more than 56000 to conduct their financial services and also advice over 18000 financial firms. FCA’s service to these financial firms include providing advice about capital arrangement and capital management, associate range of services with financial service, reduce cost and price of the service etc. One of the major effectiveness of the functions of FCA is that it works to ensure the betterment of all associate parties including users, customers, financial service providers etc.(Nathans et al, 2014). It also create and alter framework and regulations regarding financial activities time to time. On the other hand, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) was established in 2013 as non-ministerial department of the government in order to ensure the strengthen business competition in UK business environment and reduce the possibility of anti-competitive activities. The major activities of CMA include conducting market research on a regular basis and investigate related matters, reduce the possibility of anti-competitive activities and agreements between firms that harm the overall market environment, consider regulatory practices and take references of the existing parties to make reasonable changes, ensure consumer protection regulation etc.(Mooney and Ryan, 2013).

3.3 Define `dominant position’ within the EU common market

According to EU competition law, dominant position indicate a position of stability and enhanced strength of a firm or enterprise in the relevant market or business environment in European Union common market. The firms or enterprise enjoying the dominant position might have the ability to operate as an independent competitive force and also affect competition of the market including the consumers, competitors and other associated parties. Firms having dominant position often use their power to set predatory price (sale goods and services at a price which is lower than cost). Such pricing is used by the dominant position to reduce competition in the market and create a permanent customer base. In the EU common market, the possibility of abuse of dominant position is dealt with anti-trust law and competition law (Foye, 2008). Such acts are used to limit or restrict the possibility of gaining harmful dominant position, impose restriction on dominant carter or pool by the firms, reduce the possibility of unfair or discriminatory condition or predatory pricing in the EU common market etc. It also helps the firms to maintain competitiveness in the market, helps to make reasonable contracts and agreements and make the dominant position to stay out of the relevant market. The legal definition of the dominant position in EU law was given 2/76 United Brands Company and United Brands Continental BV v Commission of the European Communities where it is a position or the economic strength enjoyed by the country to prevent effective competition in the market. It is fruitful for the EU to protect competitive market structure and play as monopoly to run their country efficiently in the market. Dominant market position is defined as the company holds a dominant market position which is capable of working independently from its competitor and the customers. Hence, there is monopoly power o the EU market where it plays efficiently in the world economy, where there is serious domination of the market in the international industry. The dominant position of the EU common market also allows the organisations to set higher price than the competitive price to maximise its profitability and it enjoys monopoly power in the business and also in the EU common market. Sometimes, the enterprise is abusing its dominant position and takes advantages of the market structure and EU common market by setting higher price for the products and services.

3.4 Evaluate how European Commission determines whether a corporation holds a dominant position’

In order to determine whether a corporation holds a dominant position in a common market and reduce the possibility of abuse of dominant position, the European Commission have create a set of rules as per its competition and anti-trust act. Alleged business firms and enterprises need to go through these integrated rules to determine its position. At first, European Commission (EC) determine the state of competition of the market by calculating the market share of each firms participating in the market (based on demand-supply condition). If a firm occupy 25% or above market share, it receives special attention (De Jong et al, 2011). In addition, whether the major players of a particular market are creating any merger or consolidation among them to gain excessive competitive advantage or exert any pressure on small traders or manufacturers are also checked by the EC. Most of the cases, merger or consolidation between big market players is not allowed by EC to ensure that it doesn’t hold any dominant position. EC also check that whether a firm or enterprise exert pressure on customers to purchase (or not purchase) a particular product or service or give special discount to ant particular group of customers with similar intention. The UK tries to prohibit monopoly and anti-competitive practices as a monopoly is the great threat to the economy and EU common market. The competition commission has taken various measures to restrict monopoly and anti competitive behaviour in the common market of the EU. The business having more than 50% share is considered to be monopoly and it has dominant power in the market and there is exploiting activities where the customers are suffering due to high price for the products and services. In order to restrict the monopoly power, there are several legislative practices which are Competition Act 1988, Monopolies and Merger Act 1965 and Fair Trading Act 1973 which are effective to restrict monopoly power. The competitive act 1988 forbid the monopoly power and encourage competitive market position for the benefits of the customers and the competition commission is also responsible to enhance competitive market structure to restrict anti competitive behaviour and in this regard the main goal is to promote competition, empower the consumers and give the products at reasonable price. There is strict rule and standard to maintain the competitive position and it is necessary to review that there is any breach of contract by UK or EU against the anti-competitive agreement and misuse of the dominant owner in the market. EU dominant common market is characterised as having the business firms who are exploiting the customers by setting higher price and it is one way to maximise monopolistic behaviour of the firm. The policy of EU competition law was set in the Treaty agreement of Rome in 1957 and the aim was to create the effective system where the competition in the common market exist and there is the system of free market that would be for the benefits of the consumers. Hence, the EU treaty systemic causes a downfall in the sales of the monopolistic firm in the case of over pricing. Hence, anti competitive practice may become competitive in the promotion of EU rules, exemption. The efficiency of the firms would be increased through such EU treaty agreement of enhancing competitive position in the market and restructuring monopoly behaviour.

3.5 Evaluate the meaning and consequences of ‘abuse of dominant position’

The term “abuse of dominant position” indicate that a business firm or enterprise that have competitive position in a business environment or relevant market use this position to gain unethical business advantage. Such kind of advantage include charging higher price unnecessarily or charge a lower price than the cost with an unreasonable cause, destroy the competitiveness of the market by dumping the products or service (that small businesses cannot compete), obstructing the competitiveness of the market by forcing the consumers or suppliers to purchase a particular product, refusing to service certain customers or provide extra benefit to certain customer with unethical intention and making conditional sale (selling of a particular product depend on the sell on another product) (Rodger and MacCulloch, 2008). According to the anti-trust law of UK and EU, abuse of dominant position bring serious consequences to the firm or enterprise that was enjoying such position. The firm or enterprise with the proved allegation of abuse of dominant position might face three types of consequences; temporary or permanent ban from doing business in a particular area or product or service, monetary penalty, and permanent shutdown of the business. At present, monetary penalty is widely used in UK and other EU countries to deal with abuse of dominant position (Wrigley, 2012). In case of a series of allegation or other severe cases, the authority might permanently shut down the operation of the firm.

3D1 Evaluate the effectiveness of regulatory bodies in preventing anti- competitive practices

Regulatory bodies like UK competition Commission, European Commission, the Competition and Market Authority are solely devoted to ensure the competitive environment of the market and reduce the possibility of anti-trust behaviour of the participating firms and enterprises. In order to effectively regulate the competitiveness and prevent anti-competitive practices, mainly focuses on four major areas; prohibiting allegiance, merger, cartel, pool or any other type of combination that might enhance the possibility of anti-competitive practices, prevent the major players of the market from abusing their dominant position, provide or not provide state aid or state control over firms and enterprises to ensure healthy competition, and create legal boundaries and regulations for all associated parties of the market (including business individuals, firms, consumers etc.) (Wrigley, 2012). Upon request of the market participants, formal complaints or according to its own inspection, these regulatory bodies create a special taskforce to open a formal investigation against a particular firm or enterprise regarding its anti-trust activities. For the sake of the investigation, these authorities can ask information from the firm itself, the government, market regulators, competitors and other undertakings. Another effectiveness of these regulators is that they also provide special leniency policy to ensure the safeguard of the whistle-blowers against anti-trust and anti-competitive activities.

Task 4:

4.1 Distinguish different forms of intellectual property

Intellectual property (IP) is considered as a creation of the mind mostly concentrated on intangible assets. As per legal norms and regulations, exclusive rights of such creation are granted by law to the property holder. Based on the difference on artistic works, discoveries, inventions, strategies, designs or any other kind of property, there are four different types of intellectual property are classified by law (Whish and Bailey, 2015). These four are copyright, trademark, patent and trade secret. Copyright is considered as the protection of idea or invention of different kinds (music, literacy, dramatic work, sound recording, graphic and sculptural art etc). Copyright ownership gives the owner to intentionally make change, addition, deduction, copy, display or even perform any time. Trademark is considered as a word, pair of word or symbol that represent a product, service or organization. By using trademark, it is possible to differentiate the particular goods, service or the organization from others. Patent is a formal protection of discovery, invention, design and strategies. Such invention can be a completely new one, addition or deduction to old one. Finally, Trade secret is the process of maintaining relevant information covert for a specific period of time or perpetual time (Hölscher and Stephan, 2014). Such kind of information gives a particular product, service or business competitive advantage or safe from potential harm.

4.2 Evaluate the value of patents’ and copyrights’ protections.

Copyright gives the protection to the owner of the idea or invention (like artistic work, picture, musical, literacy, dramatic work etc.) of any kind to maintain “original works of authorship”. By this right, the owner of the copyright have legal right to copy or reproduce the work, and preparer, distribute or perform the work publicly for a specific period of time or continuous basis. Generally, copyright provides two types of protection; protection of the use of creative work for the use of its legal owner and protection of monetary value. As per the copyright law, it is strictly prohibited to use the artistic or creative work without the previous consent of the legal owner. On the other hand, though the patent is used for almost similar perspective, it provides extra value of protection as per nature of the creative or artistic work (Noll, 2010). As per its nature, three major types of patents are used mostly; product patent, utility patent and design patent. Product patent is used to ensure legal ownership on a particular product, utility patent is used to establish legal ownership on a particular function of result and design patent is used to protect the right on artistic, strategic or ornamental designs. For managing legal ownership of the eBook, it is mandatory to have copyright and patent to protect the book and then publishers. The symbol © needs to be created for maintaining its copyright and the name of the copyright holder and publishers are also there in the eBook. It is essential to manage the copyright of the books where the hackers cannot hack the information and the patent right. The patent grants the inventor to exclude others from selling, making and using or importing the books for their interest. For patent, the inventor must submit the patent application and U.S. patent law must be incorporated while uploading the eBooks. The software products and machines are protected by such law and patent right where the inventor can be successful to protect and maintain it’s copyright.

4.3 Appraise remedies for patents’ and copyrights’ infringements

Though the patent and copyright are used for ensuring the protection of intellectual property, sometimes these face infringement problem in different condition. In order to deal with such infringement, several remedies including monetary relief, legal relief, cost, equitable relief etc. Monetary relief are used to compensate the owner in case of infringement of patent and copyright. Two major types of monetary relief are compensatory damage and increased damage. As per compensatory damage, the owner of the patent or copyright is able to recover the lost profit or income from the value. On the other hand, increased damage is used in case of deliberate infringement (Lavenex, 2014). In case of equitable relief, the court or any other legal authority order injunctions to the individual or organization (accountable for the infringement) to prohibit from doing something or particularly doing something to reduce the degree of loss of the owner. Two major types of injunctions are preliminary injunctions and permanent injunctions. Generally, in early stage of lawsuit for patent or copyright infringement, preliminary injunctions are used (discourage to start using the property) and at the final stage permanent junctions are used (discontinue to use the property). Copyright in the eBook segment is mandatory and it is conducted under copyright infringement where the use of works is protected by copyright law where without permissions, it is not possible for the users to utilise the books. Infringement is hereby the certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder for the right to reproduce, distribute and display the books. Under the US copyright law, the creative work is granted copyright protecting from the moment it’s created and it further protects the eBooks where the publishers can safely handle the published books and journals. It is also possible to print the eBooks and there is strict restriction imposed by the publisher and by the copyright. There are eBook reader and eBook device where subscription is required for reading the books and published articles.

4.4 Compare and contrast the protection of trademarks and business names

Though the trademark and business name both are used as the formal nomenclature for the protection of right and ownership for a firm or enterprise, these two take place differently and are used in their own field with different types of protection remark. A trademark is generally used to indicate the clear identification of a particular product or service of a firm in the market and clearly differentiate the product or service from others. As per trademark and copyright law, no registration is required for using trademark, though the registered trademark gives extra protection while the unregistered one is protected by general law only. On the other hand, a business name is used to identify and protect a business or a particular product or service (Arezzo, 2005). According to the law, the business name must be registered with National Business name Register and then the business is eligible to use this name to promote its activities. In order to ensure the protection of the business name, the legal entity that registers the name must be a person (sole trader), number of people (partnership) or a company (public limited or private limited). The computer company must have effective trademark which are mandatory to protect the data and information. The trademark identifies the good and services as being a particular source where company domain name and web address are there which are protected under patent and trademark. Source indicating trademark and the intellectual property rights are mandatory for the computer company to protect its data and information successfully. There are three types of trademark such as design mark, certification mark, and distinguishing guise which are effective for the computer company. Encryption of the data as well as VPN system is effective to protect the computerized data and information of the company. Installing antivirus and anti spyware software, browser settings as well as password protected software are also there to secure the data base and improve the performance of the commuter company.

4M1 Evaluate the application of copyrights to commercially sensitive, short, verbal texts

Though copyright is generally used to give right of ownership of creative or artistic work to its original owner/creator, it can also be intensively used to reduce the possibility of disputes among parties regarding the use and ownership of such works. In addition, copyright of personal creations; music, literacy, dramatic work, sound recording, graphic and sculptural art etc. and business creations; products, services, machines, tools, process, strategies etc. can be used to settle commercial disputes other business related sensitive issues (Macatangay, 2011). While resolving copyright disputes, legal bodies generally focus on three things; terms of the original copyright, deliberate or forceful agreement to use the copyright work, andstate of infringement. In some special cases, the copyright has some terms like area that cover the legal value of the copyright, accepted period of the copyright as per legal value, term to use by the creative idea by third parties etc. For example, according to EC, any pharmaceutical idea or strategy (medicine, equipment etc.) has a copyright of 20 years and after that period, this copyright has no legal value and all participating firms can produce the medicine or equipment with prior permission. In addition, the person or firm that has copyright of a particular idea, product or servicecan give permission to other firms to copy, use or reproduce the idea or product and use it for business purpose (Granstrand, 2011). But such permission must be made deliberately by the owner of the copyright. If it is proved that any forceful pressure or word was used to receive the permission to use the copyright idea or product, then the latter firm is subject to monetary penalty, temporarily or permanently shut the operation by the authority.

Conclusion:

At present, business and commercial law has achieved its widespread use because of the presence of complicated business environments and increased business and commercial functions. Business laws are designed to reduce the possibility of dispute among buyer, seller, re-seller, importer and exporter, consumer and other associated parties while participating in trade, commerce, import and export and other related activities. In this Business Law assignment, how business organisations and individuals develop legal relationship among them, how different types of contracts and agency activities takes place are discussed with a brief explanation about practices of mergers, monopolies and anti-competitive practices. Besides, legal aspects regarding intellectual property rights are also discussed. Continue your journey with our comprehensive guide to Understanding Anti-Competitive Behavior and Market Impact.

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