Case Study Number 4 - Week 7 - Intellectual Property - Patents

Catherine Creator is just a wizard of wonderful ideas. Everyday she has a new idea. Her house is like a museum of crazy new inventions. Many of them don't work. But it would be cool if they did - like her Idea Helmet, or her Pimple Preventer.

She heard you took a law course, so she called you to come over for a glass of wine because she wants to show you something.

You knock on the door and she calls out, "Come in..."

You step inside but there is no one there.

Suddenly, a large blue box just appears two feet in front of you. The lid pops open and Catherine stands up. "Ta-dahhh!" she says.

She tells you she figured out the whole teleportation thing. "It really wasn't that hard, ya know?"

You tell her you need that wine.

As she pours the wine, she starts talking about making money from her idea and how she might protect it from others.

Template Questions for the Week 7 Case Study

best to answer her questions in as much detail as possible by first explaining the law and then applying the law to her situation (the facts.)

1. Explain in detail, what is patentable under the law? Apply the law to her situation and explain to her if her idea is patentable.

2. Explain in detail, what are the four classes of patents? Apply the law to her situation and explain to her what classes of patents, if any apply to her idea.

3. Explain in detail, what is the process of getting a patent? Explain how the process will work for her.

4. She wants to let either Air Canada or FedEx, or maybe both, use her idea as long as she gets paid. Explain her options to her.