ASSIGNMENT
1. Keller, a professor of legal studies at Rhodes University, is a diligent instructor. Late one night while reading a newly published, copyrighted treatise of 1,800 pages written by Gilbert, he came across a three-page section discussing the subject matter he intended to cover in class the next day. Keller considered the treatment to be illuminating and therefore photocopied the three pages and distributed the copies to his class. One of Keller’s students is a second cousin of Gilbert, the author of the treatise, and she showed Gilbert the copies. May Gilbert recover from Keller for copyright infringement? Explain.
2. A conceived a secret process for the continuous freeze- drying of foodstuffs and related products and con- structed a small pilot plant that practiced the process. A, however, lacked the financing necessary to develop the commercial potential of the process and, in hopes of obtaining a contract for its development and the payment of royalties, disclosed it in confidence to B, a coffee manufacturer, who signed an agreement not to disclose it to anyone else. At the same time, A signed an agreement not to disclose the process to any other person as long as A and B were considering a contract for its development. Upon A’s disclosure of the process, B became extremely interested and offered to pay A the sum of $1,750,000 if, upon further development, the process proved to be commercially feasible. While negotiations between A and B were in progress, C, a competitor of B, learned of the process and requested a disclosure from A, who informed C that the process could not be disclosed to anyone unless negotiations with B were broken off. C offered to pay A $2,500,000 for the process, provided it met certain defined objective performance criteria. A contract was prepared and executed between A and C on this basis, without any prior disclosure of the process to C. Upon the making of this contract, A rejected B’s offer. The process was thereupon disclosed to C, and demonstration runs of the pilot plant in the presence of C’s representatives were conducted under varying conditions. After three weeks of conducting experimental demonstrations, compiling data, and analyzing results, C informed A that the process did not meet the performance criteria in the contract and that for this reason C was rejecting the process. Two years later, C placed on the market freeze-dried coffee that resembled in color, appearance, and texture the product of A’s pilot plant. What are the rights of the parties?
3. B, a chemist, was employed by A, a manufacturer, to work on a secret process for A’s product under an exclusive three-year contract. A employed C, a salesperson, on a week-to-week basis. B and C resigned their employment with A and accepted employment in their respective capacities with D, a rival manufacturer. C began soliciting patronage from A’s former customers, whose names he had memorized. What are the rights of the parties in (a) a suit by A to enjoin B from working for D and (b) a suit by A to enjoin C from soliciting A’s customers?
4. Conrad and Darby were competitors in the business of dehairing raw cashmere, the fleece of certain Asiatic goats. Dehairing is the process of separating the commercially valuable soft down from the matted mass of raw fleece, which contains long coarse guard hairs and other impurities. Machinery for this process is not readily available on the open market. Each company in the business designed and built its own machinery and kept the nature of its process secret. Conrad contracted with Lawton, the owner of a small machine shop, to build and install new improved dehairing machinery of increased efficiency for which Conrad furnished designs, drawings, and instructions. Lawton, who knew that the machinery design was confidential, agreed that he would manufacture the machinery exclusively for Conrad and that he would not reproduce the machinery or any of its essential parts for anyone else. Darby purchased from Lawton a copy of the dehairing machinery that Conrad had specially designed. What rights, if any, does Conrad have against (a) Lawton and (b) Darby? Explain.
5. Jones, having filed locally an affidavit required under the assumed name statute, has been operating and advertising his exclusive toy store for twenty years in Centerville, Illinois. His advertising has consisted of large signs on his premises reading “The Toy Mart.” Lewis, after operating a store in Chicago under the name of “The Chicago Toy Mart,” relocated in Centerville, Illinois, and erected a large sign reading “TOY MART” with the word “Centerville” written underneath in substantially smaller letters. Thereafter, Jones’s sales declined, and many of his customers patronized Lewis’s store, thinking it to be a branch of Jones’s business. What are the rights of the parties?
