TEMPERING TEMPESTS IN A COFFEE CUP |
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TRADE SECRETS
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COPYRIGHT
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TRADEMARK
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PATENT
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INFORMATION LAW Beating a path into their favorite JAVA MAN cavern earns frequent customers membership in the Caveman’s Club, where coffee compatriots earn special incentives and moneysaving coupons. An outside vendor maintains the list for JAVA MAN – but who actually owns the database? The U.S. Supreme Court has held that data generally cannot be copyrighted, but new information law doctrines are emerging to protect a company’s database investments. JAVA MAN customers have enough to be jittery about without worrying that their names and addresses could wind up in the public domain. |
The
legal issues involving intellectual property and information law
are easily illustrated. Consider the fictional case of JAVA MAN,
a Seattle- based coffee conglomerate that has elevated espresso
to an art form and levitated lattés into opiates for the
masses. Can anyone with a coffee pot and a few beans mimic JAVA MAN’s
unique approach to caffeine delivery? Would-be competitors would
be wise to first take a deep gulp...and consider how their perking
could be irking the team of IP and IL experts charged with defending
JAVA MAN’s interests. When it comes to protecting rights under
intellectual property and information law, JAVA MAN never takes
a coffee break. 
Roasting
is more than an art at JAVA MAN—it’s a science based
on a tightly guarded trade secret known only to a handful of company
executives. Each of the company’s concoctions—from Tar
Pit Frappés to Stegosaurespressos—owes its distinctive
taste to a specific roasting technique. What if a nefarious insider
penetrates the vault in the company’s headquarters, pirates
the formulas, and launches a competing brand of coffees? Et tu,
brew tay! The erstwhile thief obviously doesn’t know beans
about the trade secret protections found in intellectual property
law. Thanks to these safeguards, the roasting formulas that put
the jump in JAVA MAN’s Joe will remain secure. 
The
syncopated percolations filtering through the soundtrack of every
JAVA MAN radio and television ad constitute the national anthem
of caffeine-conscious consumers. That fact is not lost on competitors,
some of whom might feel stimulated to cut a duplicate track or two
of their own. But copycats are mincemeat for the saber-toothed copyright
lawyers at JAVA MAN, and officers of the court would have no compunction
about issuing an injunction— or sentencing repeat offenders
for a stint in the stir.
After
a tough day pursuing mastodons, every caveperson craves an aromatic
elixir of their own. That’s the thinking at JAVA MAN, a company
that ranks the discovery of coffee just behind the invention of
the wheel as a great moment in human history. Like a T-Rex leaving
fossilized footprints, JAVA MAN stamps its prehistoric theme everywhere
it ventures: from bean-sack burlap aprons to capacious cappuccino
cups shaped like cauldrons. What’s to stop Neanderthal competitors
from scrawling their own cave-art version of JAVA MAN’s lovable,
stubble-faced mug? Trademark protections are an integral part of
intellectual property law. Statutes and case law would freeze-dry
any unwelcome forays and give JAVA MAN a heavy club to wield in
court. 
When
a crowd of Cro Magnons descends on their favorite JAVA MAN outlet,
they can be assured of prompt service made possible by the company’s
high-performance espresso machines. Can the equipment receive patent
protection? Inventions that open the door to a competitive advantage
when protected by a patent can shelter the market for a period of
up to 20 years. So while challengers grind through the technological
equivalent of the Iron Age, JAVA MAN’s patent barristers can
lounge languorously in clouds of profit-producing steam.