Question

Last month, I assigned a task, in which students had to respond to a long fact
pattern question about trademark law. I told the students not to use non-course materials
in crafting their answer. Nevertheless, one student included a 420-word answer
that included the following language:
The Lanham Act sets out procedures for federally registering
trademarks, states when owners of trademarks may be entitled to federal
judicial protection against infringement, and establishes other
guidelines and remedies for trademark owners.
This sentence appears directly from the website NOLO.com, which an online, legal
encyclopedia, which makes money by selling advertising space on its webpages to
different law firms. To the best of my knowledge, no other language for the student’s
answer was lifted from NOLO.com.
Supppose, with all students’ permission, I published a collection of student answers to the
task and my comments to these tasks in a book I published called “How To
Write A Good Intellectual Property Fact Pattern Answer,” and then I sold that book to
perspective law students for $20/copy. NOLO.com, in turn, sues me.
Write an answer that addresses the following: (A) Among the forms of intellectual
property we have covered in this class, what is the best legal claim that NOLO.com
would have against me; (B) discuss all elements of this claim and all elements of any
affirmative defense(s) that I would have; and (C) draw a reasonable conclusion
about who wins and why.

Answer 1

A) NOLO.com can sue the professor for copyright violation. Copyright is a law that gives the owner of the work the right to say how other people can use it. With copyright the work can be copied only if owner gives permission.

B) ELEMENTS OF CLAIM:

a) NOLO can say that it is not authorized for professor to use my published information as their own.

b) NOLO can also ask for some money in return to setle the claim.

In defense professor can argue that in a long answer of 420 words there is only 2 lines that is copied from the NOLO.com and not other.

C) If NOLO.com have proof of their published work and include three elements such as: word COPYRIGHT, year of publication, author name and phrase 'all rights reserved' then NOLO.com will win the case.