Comparison of the UK Copyright Law and Patent Law Research Paper

Comparison of the UK Copyright Law and Patent Law - Research Paper Example The effect of a grant of a patent is to exclude others from reproducing, selling and making the patented object whilst the effect of copyright protection is to give its owner the exclusive right to do anything to his copyrighted work.1. In the United Kingdom jurisdiction, the applicable law for patenting is the Patent Law of 1977 (as amended) and for copyrighting the Copyright, Designs and Patents Acts of 1988 (as amended by the Copyright and Related Rights and Regulations).2 Albeit that the laws have different methods of extending legal protection to their subjects, these differences boil down to the same purpose – to minimise monopolies. The copyright law began with the practice of giving exclusive rights to printers to print and distribute books. However, in 1709, the Statute of Anne began giving these rights instead to the authors although limited to fourteen years and renewable once.3 In 1886, the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works established the fundamental structure that countries should follow in drafting their respective copyright laws.4 Eventually, the European Union was organised and one of its objectives was to harmonise the laws of member countries. Thus, the laws of the UK periodically undergo amendments to make them in accord with the EU laws. The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 for example, has been constantly amended and in 2003 The Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 was issued. 5 The patents law, on the other hand, was believed to have originated in Italy through the Statute of Monopolies in 1474. In England, the patents system was begun by the issuance of letters patent granted to inventors to grant them the monopoly of the production of certain goods.  

Discussion for Week 6 Chapter 9 Question 1 Information Protection and Assignment

Discussion for Week 6 Chapter 9 Question 1 Information Protection and Privacy - Assignment Example Question one: Based on the e-Activity, evaluate the circumstances that contributed to the privacy violation, the consequence to the company to the breach, and management’s response to the breach, indicating the appropriateness of the response. Suggest how the company may have presented the breach and / or responded differently once the breach was discovered. Provide support for your rationale.   The violation of personal information and company privacy has been experienced in the LexisNexis Company where three people hacked into the database and accessed personal information concerning several celebrities; however, investigations have shown that the three hackers have not used the information for any ill purpose (Biz Media pg.2) The hackers are believed to belong to a group of hackers known as the Operation Boca Grande; they claimed that they hacked into the LexisNexis Database while they were in a cyber just as a â€Å"joyride†. LexisNexis database is easily available in the internet thus making it more vulnerable to hacking; this has also been increased by high levels of technology accessibility to the current generation. The breach of the LexisNexis company privacy created a lot of concern from a number of celebrities who demanded that the LexisNexis Database Company ensure that their personal information is not misused. The Company responded by hiring the services of a law enforcer to investigate the extent to which the hackers have misused the Company and Clients’ private information (Biz Media, pg.2). Although the Company applied the use of a legal enforcer to investigate the breach, it is still imperative that the management shut down the website to avoid further breaches that may occur and provide a chance for more investigation (Wack 1989, pg.4). One of the ethical issues that need to be taken into consideration is the classification or categorizing of data that persons can access. The corporate policy can be formulated in a manner that