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Business Law Essay

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Submitted By meeksj
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Business can be a difficult field to work in. Companies are there to make money. Investors of companies, partners, and owners, all want the company to earn more profits and continue to increase the value of the company. At the same time, every individual in business would like to increase their net worth as well. Throughout this course we have been learning about different aspects of business law, particularly how it pertains to starting a business. As I have read articles in the Wall Street Journal, I have come to realize how much a business (whether it be a start-up or not) will go at lengths to gain a leg on competition. I noticed three ways in particular we may see this: patent infringement, bribes, and kickbacks. By these three we can see that there is an ethical issue in business, because businesses are willing to do what is not ethically right to gain an advantage. To begin with let us dive into patents.

As explained in the text of book for class, patents can provide powerful protection on new products, processes and inventions (Bagley and Dauchy, 542). It is not so much the benefits that can come from having a patent but the weaknesses that can occur. Some weaknesses listed in the book include: “High standards of patentability; often expensive and time-consuming to pursue; must disclose invention to public” (Bagley and Dauchy, 572). It is that last weakness that can be an issue with dealing with patents. In the articles that I have had the opportunity to study; some of the articles included patent disputes. Often it is telling of one company having to pay another for patent infringements. For example, Google could have to pay up to $1 Billion to Vringo Inc. a small patent and technology company (Rubin). Another article explains how Apple and Samsung are attempting to settle outside of court dealing with patent infringements by Samsung (Wakabayashi and

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