Overview
BUL 6810HC MBATake home Final
Professor Sue Ganske
SpringSemester 2026
This take-home final is due by April 26 before11:58p.m. through Canvas, and it is worth 25 points. There will be no late submissions accepted, no extensions, and no resubmissions. There’s no extra credit.It’s a good strategy to upload a draft early to be sure something is submitted before the deadline. Please email me well before the deadline if you want me to check the AI writing score before final submission. The AI writing score needs to be 0% or points will be deducted. The AI writing score is triggered by translation programs, and Grammarly or other sentence rewrite features in software, so please don’t use these. The AI writing score is also triggered by Microsoft’s Copilot so please disable it.My comments will be available after the due date and the exam is graded. Please be sure to review my comments in Canvas on all your graded work this semester – they are meant to be constructive and helpful, and not critical. This final exam is to be entirely your own work. Any variation is an Honor Code violation. This must beyour own original writing and analysis. Copying and pasting is not allowed, and all direct quotes must be put in quotation marks and cited, to avoid plagiarism, a very serious academic honesty offense. Please keep the similarity score low, below 30%, with no plagiarism. Please cite any sources used beyond those given belowand provided. As fair warning, this exam is time-consuming and challenging, so plan accordingly. I hope that you will find it interesting and a learning opportunity about new legal issues, or issues you hadn’t thought of in detail before. This will be graded on content including analysis, and writing. Please use sentence/paragraph format throughout, although it does not have to be a cohesive essay between the questions. There is no minimum or maximum page limit, and each question must be answered completely. Develop your analysis as a HC MBA candidate. Some MBAs have told me that they actually enjoyed completing an examlike this! Thank you for a terrific semester!
1. Intellectual property rightshave very important implications. The USPTO estimates that over 41% of GDP is IP based, and one third of the US workforce works in IP related jobs. According to the U.S. Constitution, intellectual property law grants authors (copyright)and inventors (patent) a limited monopoly to their writings and discoveries.
Please answer allof the following completely, defining legal terms.
Copyright:
What is a copyright, what does it cover, and how long does it lastboth under the WTO’s TRIPS agreement and in the U.S., for both individual and corporate works? Define and discuss. Please go to the Copyright Office’s web page and do a search, under records, for an entity or organization, an employer, or an author or artist of interest to you. The URL is www.copyright.gov, and do a search for copyright records. Be sure to search the Copyright Public Records under Online Records Portal, and do not use the general search engine at thetop of the Copyright Office’s website, copyright.gov, for this. Please discuss your findings and the number and types of copyrights found for the person or entity you search for. If the person or organization you initially search for doesn’t have any copyrights, please search for another who does. Please note that the actual copyrighted material is not linked, just a description of what is copyrighted. (2 points)
Patent:
Discuss and define each of the 3 different types of patents, including what each covers. How long does eachof the three types last?What are the Patent Act’s requirements to obtain a patent? Define and discuss. (3 points)
At the US Patent and Trademark Office’s web page, uspto.gov, please do a search for a company or inventor of interest to you. The patent search is found under patents, Patent Public Search. A company search is done by “assignee,” since the employee inventor typically assigns patents developed in the workplace to the employer. You may search for any company or employer, such as “Johnson & Johnson,” “Theranos,” or the “Cleveland Clinic,” as assignee. Or, you may search by an inventor’s name under Applicant name, such as “Holmes, Elizabeth A.” What did you find for the assignee or applicant, and about how many patents did you find? Please discuss in detail at least 2 patents you found, from the full actual patent. (2 points)
Trademark: What is a trademark, what does it cover, and how long does it last? Discuss, including what part of the Constitution allows for federal trademarks, and the implications of that. (1 point)
Atthe US Patent and Trademark Office’s web page, uspto.gov, under trademarks, under searchour trademark database, thenlearn about searching, go to the Design Search Code Manual. Home | Trademark Design Search Code ManualPlease review several categories of trademarks of interest to you and discuss.(Remember, only trademarks, not patents and copyrights, are protected under both federal and state law, and one may register a state trademark through the Secretary of State’s office).(1 point)
At the uspto.gov website, under trademarks, under search our trademark database, search for the trademarks of the company of interest to you, such as FIU or Cleveland Clinic. How many do they haveand for what types of things?Please discuss the trademarks you find. (1 point)
The U.S. International Trade Commission, usitc.gov, investigates claims of violations of intellectual property rights brought in section 337 actions (actually section 1337 of the Administrative Procedures Act). From the International Trade Commission’s website, under investigations, under unfair import, then about section 337,please discuss these unfair import investigations under section 337. From Outstanding Exclusion Orders, please select at least two orders of interest to you, preferably in the healthcare field,and discuss from the actual order at the website.Outstanding Section 337 Exclusion Orders | United States International Trade Commission (usitc.gov) (2 points)
Please discuss an ethical and legal issue of interest to you concerning intellectual property in healthcare. Explain and develop your analysis in detail. Spend substantial time on this and develop your analysis.As you pose problems or challenges, also please offer specific solutions. (2 points)
(14 points total on Question 2)
2. From our textbook, our classroom weekly lecture and posted slides, and eeoc.gov, what are the major anti-discrimination laws enforced in the U.S.? Briefly discuss each of the major anti-discrimination laws. (1 point)
Please go to eeoc.gov, and under Employees and Job Applicants, then discrimination by Type, please select twoareas of interest to you (not including retaliation), plus retaliation, and discuss in detail, beyond the brief discussion above. For each of the twotypes of discrimination plus retaliation, discuss what the law covers, employer coverage (how many employees are needed for this to be actionable), time limits to bring a case, any listed best practices, and any Supreme Court precedents.(3 points)
What is the biggest legal and ethical issue in employmentlaw specifically? Please discuss this questionin detail, including how tocorrect these problems, and at what level (EEOC or employer) the solutions may be implemented. Again, spend considerable time and thought on writing and developing your analysis.
(2 points)
(6 points total on Question 2)
3. Contracts are essential to doing business and are essential in healthcare. Some existing contracts may be found at findlawcom, specifically at corporate.findlaw.com/contracts.html . Please access at least two existing contracts of interest and write summaries. It’s encouraged to select contracts in the healthcare industry, in areas such as hospitals, medical services, miscellaneous, or other areas. But you may select two contracts of your choosing even if they aren’t in healthcare. In your summaries, please include key terms, and major articles and provisions. Do your selected contracts have all the requirements of a valid contract? Explain. What topics are covered? Explain. Do the contracts have topics that you wouldn’t have thought to cover? Explain in detail.
(5 points on Question 3).