Question one
Market competition has created a platform whereby many players in the market secure the rights of their products and services to sustain their businesses. However, the public enjoys some rights despite legal issues raised about the same. In a bid to register a business, a firm would need a name, which should not match with that of another firm to avoid legal issues. Nevertheless, the domain has no trademarks, but domain names have. For instance, all businesspersons may use a “.com” domain, but the domain name like “prince” is trademark. Registering another business with a domain name “princetennis” and a domain of “.com” will raise legal issues. The former may claim that it causes confusion; clients may mistake the former for the latter. In this case, it is advised to register business names (trademarks), which are unique from others’.
Although the United States music Copyright law states that one should not infringe the rights granted to the owner of the song or piece of the art, internet users have capitalized modern technology to enjoy these services without paying royalties. Many assume that they use the media content for “fair use.” Some have launched their own websites to distribute films and music at the expense of the owner. Legal issue has been raised, but copyright owners have assumed some because of the cost and time involved in identifying “pirates;” most of them are not traceable. In addition, social network sites have availed, many films and music contents, for download by members at no cost; copyright owners cannot restrict such distribution (Goldberg, 2007).
In the future, the act of copying and distributing music and films on the internet through social networking platform will no longer exist. Strict laws imposed on the domain name owners will ensure that all offenders face the full force of the law. Advancement in modern technology will help in reducing the “copying and selling” of such illegal contents.
Question two
Firstly, a government increases taxation to all the operations by the foreign firm in an event that their production of goods and services is discouraged. Administrative restrictions like legal issues regarding registration, and ownership of assets are imposed in an effort to discourage their operations (Carroll, 2008). On the other hand, the government exempts goods imported for production and even removes legal and other administrative restrictions in order to sustain the production of goods and services.
Most American firm faces various issues during their production process in foreign countries. Dilution of their trademarks and infringement of their copyrights are some of the challenges many firm face foreign countries. Host or local firm infringe on such rights and effort put, to block them legally from continuing have always been futile. For instance, Apple launched a complaint against Samsung regarding infringement of copyrights; justice has never been done. In order to survive this challenges some practice cultural imperialism by ensuring that they provide goods and services defined by the local standards; pricing and distribution relates to that of their home country.
American companies have a mandate to withholding some of the procedures used, during the production process, to avoid infringement of their property rights. In addition, they should come up with unique trademarks related to their domain names in order to avoid any legal issues with firms in the foreign country. Apart from that, the following of the due legal process in an event of a legal suit is essential. Some countries have their own interpretation of the law; some laws practiced in America may not apply in foreign counties. In order to avoid culture shocks, American firm should learn and adopt the local culture expected from them when running their businesses in foreign countries (Carroll, 2008).
References
Carroll, A. B. (2008). Business & society: ethics & stakeholder management (7th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Goldberg, P. (2007, August 2). Legal Issues About Trademarks And Domain Names | SmallBusinessNewz. SmallBusinessNewz | For Business Professionals. Retrieved January 17, 2013, from http://www.smallbusinessnewz.com/legal-issues-about-trademarks-and-domain-names-2007-08
Lipton, J. D. (2010). Internet domain names, trademarks and free speech. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
