FINAL EXAM

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW SURVEY

GOLDEN GATE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW

There are three (3) essay questions on this exam. Each question is worth fifty (33.5) points,. Answer each question as fully as you can, citing any appropriate cases, industry standards, and statutes that are relevant.

DO NOT WRITE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE PAGE.

WRITE LEGIBLY OR PRINT IF YOUR HANDWRITING IS DIFFICULT TO READ. 

If I cannot read your response to a question, your grade will be adversely affected.
You have three hours to complete this exam. You are not required to spend the entire time working on the exam - the average time for completion is between two and three hours. You should outline your response to each question, before writing the response. I recommend that you spend one third of the time on each question creating your outline, and the remainder of your time writing your answer. For example, if you spend 1.0 hour per question, devote 20 minutes to the outline, and 40 minutes writing the answer.

QUESTION NO. 1 (33.5 Points)

You have been contacted by biologist Diana Prince, who has developed a new biological microorganism, which does not appear in nature, and which, when combined with a cell from a strand of human hair, speeds up the growth process of the cell, and allows the growth of an exact duplicate of the person whose hair was used - in other words, Ms. Prince's microorganism allows for human cloning - the reproduction of a human being.

Ms. Prince asks you to help her obtain a patent on this microorganism. She wants to know what administrative steps she will have to take in order to apply for a patent. She also wants to know whether her invention is patentable, because she is aware that other biologists have invented a way to clone animals, specifically sheep. What advice can you give her?

QUESTION NO. 2 (33.5 Points)

You have been asked for advice by Kyle Rayner and Arthur Curry of JLA Computers, about a computer game program they have developed, which they call Apokolips. The game is based on a series of comic books produced by DC Comics, which owns the rights to such famous comic books as Batman and Superman. Rayner and Curry have changed the names, appearance
and descriptions of the DC characters they based their new game characters on, and have created a new and unique set of commands for playing the game. They do not want to contact DC Comics to license any characters, since they believe that there new characters belong solely to them, and they do not want to pay DC and license fees. They want you to obtain copyright registrations for them for the new characters they will use in the game, and for their new set of game commands. Is it possible to obtain those copyrights? Why or why not? They also want to know whether you think they will be sued by DC comics. What do you tell them?

QUESTION NO. 3 (33.5 Points)

The owners of JLA Computers also want to obtain a trademark in the name of their game, Apokolips. They ask you to describe the steps they will need to take to obtain a federal trademark. They do not have any games made yet, but plan to have products for sale in the next ten months. How do you advise them? Are they likely to encounter any trademark problems with the use of their characters, as described in Question 2? Explain your response.