LEG 100 Week 10 Assignment 2 Managing Your Skills – Strayer University NEW 2015 Version
Note:The companies mentioned herein are merely hypothetical organizations with characteristics developed to enable students to respond to the assignment. You may create and / or make all necessary assumptions needed for the completion of this assignment.
In this assignment, you, in the role of a risk manager at Simply Green Products, will draft a document that is commonly used in the business worlda memorandum to your boss.
Simply Green Products is a $10 million company that produces biodegradable packing materials that orchards use in the Shenandoah Valley to transport their apples, peaches, and pears nationwide. Biodegradable materials are more eco-friendly because they break down into the environment. Such packing materials are marketed under the name SafePack, which is heavily advertised in trade journals. Simply Green Products have had the name SafePack imprinted on all of their packing material since 2008; however, they never filed for either state or federal trademark protection. With the movement toward more eco-friendly agricultural production, the fact that such packing materials are biodegradable provides a primary marketing advantage over non-biodegradable competitors.
The company president, Shep Howard, has recently become aware of several issues that may require referral to the companys outside counsel. Because you serve as the companys risk manager, Howard has asked you to leverage your legal and managerial skills to draft a memorandum that addresses one (1)of the two (2) situations described below:
An environmental group is asserting that SafePack materials are not biodegradable. In fact, the group claims that these materials are causing an environmental hazard that is seeping from a local landfill into a nearby stream. An environmental group, SafePack Materials Pollute, has sprung up and launched an Internet campaign geared toward compelling fruit producers to stop purchasing your packing materials. The situation at hand raises environmental issues that relate to the Clean Water Act and the Solid Waste Disposal Act.
A company called Safe Choices, Inc. has accused Simply Green Products of trademark infringement, and has sent a cease and desist letter to President Howard, demanding that Simply Green Products stop using the name SafePack. The letter asserts that a) Safe Choices uses the SafePack name to market an emergency weather kit in the form of a backpack; and that b) Safe Choices had received a federal registration for the mark from the Patent and Trademark Office in 2002. This backpack is sold both online at safepack.com and in sporting goods stores nationwide. The letter goes on to suggest that Simply Green Product’s use of this name constitutes a false designation of origin which is likely to confuse customers as to the source of the goods. The intellectual property issue at hand involves the Lanham Act.
For one (1)of the two (2) situations set out above, write a three to four (3-4) page memorandum to President Howard. Ensure that you address each of the questions below within your memo so that President Howard may assess whether or not Simply Green Products needs to hire outside counsel to address the matter at hand.
1. Discuss the elements that must be present in order for one to prove a valid claim under the law(s) specified (i.e., the Clean Water Act, the Solid Waste Disposal Act, or the Lanham Act).