Before starting a business, it is
essential to have the knowledge of laws on business in order to help in
operation to run a business without any kind of ignorance. Different legal
rules related to Sale of Good Act and Supply of Services has been discussed in
order to identify the statutory areas involved in case studies. It is necessary
for the borrowers to have the idea and details about all the terms and
conditions before applying for loans. The efficiency of the credit agreement
and the types of agents with their rights and duties in the business world for
development purpose has been studied here. The protection of trademarks and
business authority is essential in-laws for the growth of a company. The principles
related to the protection of inventions by patent rights, copyright protection,
and infringement has successfully discussed in this study.
According to the Sale of Goods Act
(1979), the goods that are promised to be sold must match with the description
given for that particular product and must be satisfactory and fit for the
service that it is deemed to perform. In the case of delivery of the product,
it must be handled with care and delivered to the respective customer within
the stipulated time. In case 1 the implied rule (S13) was not followed as the
delivery man broke the product during its shipping process. However, there was
no problem as far as the delivery time is concerned. (S14). In case 2, the
product matches the description and was qualitatively fine. However, there was
casualness in the behaviour the delivery man, as the product was left outside
without anyone receiving it, after which it got stolen. As stated by (Dias Simões, (2017,
p.161), the customer paid the price for the fitting which was not
accomplished and she is liable for a refund. In case 3 the rule of S13 and S14
were followed. At the outset the product matched the description and was supposed
to be fit, but, unfortunately, it failed the purpose.
According to the Sale of Goods
Amendment Act (2012), if a product is sold defective at the outset or any fault
occurs within the first six months of purchase, the customer can claim the
product to be sold as a defective piece. Mrs. Smith is very much liable to
return the product or ask for a refund (case 1 and 2).
According to the section 17 of the
sale of Goods’ Act, Section 29(2), the product must be supplied to the customer
within the allotted time and place (business place, residence or somewhere
else). In case 1, 2 and 3 the above rule was followed. According to the rule of
acceptance the buyer has accepted the desired goods and intimidated it to the
seller (case 1, 3) but in case 2 Mrs Smith, even if initially agreed to pay for
the desired product, including its delivery and fitting charge, the carpet was
delivered when there was no one there to receive it. The product got stolen,
before she could get it, accept it and intimidate it to the seller. There was a
definite breach of the contract as in the first case the product was broken
during the shipping process, in spite of the fact that the product was fine at
the time of signing the contract and Mrs Smith had rightfully agreed to it. In
accordance with the terms of the contract (S27) the seller must deliver the
product to the customer in hand and she must accept and pay for the same.
However, in case 2, the carpet was delivered in the absence of the customer and
left unattended, which led to its theft.
According to the Rights and
Remedies, the consumer must be satisfied with the product, including its
quality, description and price. The above rules fit in case 1,2 and 3. If at
any time of sale, there is a fault in the product, the consumer is liable to complain.
In case 1, the hairdresser equipment was already broken before it could reach
the customer, in case 2, the carpet was left at the doorstep unattended, only
to be taken by an unauthorised individual. Even if there was no fault of the
product per say, there was a breach of contract and fake promises were made. In
case 3 the hair straightener caught on fire and was damaged in its first use.
In all these cases Mrs Smith was liable to complain and ask for a refund. In
the case of 2 the customer is entitled to receive remedies, including
compensation or bringing the contract to an end, as the seller has failed to
perform something which he was supposed to. Buyers must be given some time to
examine the product, and reject the good and ask for a refund.
In case 2, since Mrs Smith did not
get the time and opportunity to check the carpet, she could definitely reject
it and ask for a refund. In case 1 again, there was no time for Mrs Smith to
examine the product because it was already broken before it could reach her,
hence, this time as well she was liable for refund. The customer has the right to claim for
compensation in case of damage of product or of any sort of losses, like in
case 3. As mentioned by Holub and Mitchell, (2017, p.28), the compensation may come in
the form of cost of replacement of a product or its repairment. In a case where
there is no clause of replacement or repair, there is a possibility of an
alternative remedy of full or partial reduction of price. According to S51 the
seller neglects the proper delivery of goods, the buyer can take an action,
just like in case 1 and 2, where the product breaks from the manhandling and is
left unattended respectively. Customers have an approachment right to the
seller regarding any product whatsoever, six years from the date of purchase.
So if any product is damaged or has failed to live up to the mark, Mrs Smith
can complain or approach to the seller (case 1, 2 and 3). During these six
years the sellers have to deal with the customer and inform them the lasting
time of the product.
On the opposite side, if the
customer has received the product within the mentioned time, and was in its
proper form, but still refuses to accept or pay the required amount, the seller
has the right to take an action against him.
According to the Product Liability
Law, the suppliers, distributors and retailers are liable for any damage or
injury, including death caused by any product, under the Common Protection Act.
as opined by McCormack et al. (2017, p.11), the
products must be safe and usable by buyers in the first place, unlike in case
3. To prevent any accident, the sellers, producers or manufacturers must warn the
customers about the risk, must ensure that the buyers understand the potential
risk that they may face and take action if any problem arises. In case the
product bursts or in a case of injury, like in case 3, the one responsible is
liable to be sued, imprisoned or punished. The responsibility not only befalls
on the importers, manufacturers or businesses that supply their own branded
goods, but also on sellers, and hence, they are as much prone to imprisonment
as the others.
In case 3 Mrs Smith can begin its
court procedure three years from the date of injury or sue up to 10 years from
the date of injury. But since her daughter was safe the rule does not apply in
her place.
In accordance with the termination
rights, unless the entire payment procedure has been made, the credit is
considered to be the legal owner. By using a court order, implementation of a
credit agreement against a consumer is possible which helps them to stop the
procedure of repaying a loan in case of loss of job. As stated by DiMatteo,
(2016, p.21), the debtor is free to buy or return the product to the creditor
after the end of the agreement. At the time of hire purchase, agreement is made
containing the condition that unless the final installments are paid the debtor
is not the owner of the goods and the lender possess the power to take back the
goods in case the debtor fails to make the payments. The proposed credit
agreement must be explained thoroughly to the borrowers by the lenders while
taking the loan. If the terms of the agreement are broken by the borrower the
account is considered to be default. The creditor at that point feels that the
borrower is incapable of repaying the money. In the case scenario, Peter is not
able to pay further due to loss of job but he hopes to get another job soon for
restart the payment. It would be wise for Peter to inform the truth to Alf
& Sons so that they do not take any actions or take back the due to not
paying the installments on time and also not informing about the issue. The
creditor with respect to the default account can take actions of either taking
back the car or serious legal steps.
According to Keskiner and Crul, (2017, p.283),
a credit agreement is a detailed document which briefs about all the terms
related to the given contract. Loans of different types have credit agreement
that needs to be signed and approved upon by both the creditor and debtor.
Different types of the credit agreement and its different characteristics are
discussed below:
Conditional Sales Agreement: This type of agreement deals with
the sales of products to its customers where a seller gets money for goods
while a buyer gets the goods. Here an agreement is made in order to pay the
installments. Ownership of the products gets transferred to the buyer after the
installments are cleared which is termed as receiving good title.
Credit Sale Agreement: As mentioned by Kaya and Tuncer,
(2017, p.149), in this type of agreement, as soon as the agreement gets
approval with payment through installments, the transfer of ownership takes
place. Unless the supplier of the product agrees, the products cannot be given
back. With a credit sale agreement, the products purchased are supplied and
owned by the marketer who sells them. In this respect, the agreement is with
the marketer.
Hire Purchase: In this type of
contract, until the full amount is paid the buyer does not carry ownership and
will lease the goods. Using this agreement while purchasing involves a
concurrence in order to pay the cost of what is bought in installments.
According to Funk and Hirschman, (2017, p.32),
in the commercial activity, agents play an important role in order to
represent the interests of individual principals for conducting of the
business. Agents can be classified in different ways which include the
following:
Specialist agents: This type of agents is appointed on
the basis of particular tasks where the agency lasts for period of time.
Examples of specialist agents are:
• Estate agents act for the dealer of the
property with the capacity of finding a buyer.
• Auctioneers act as agents for the
seller in order to sell the products on behalf to the highest applicant and act
as an agent to the buyer once sale has been stated.
• Brokers act as intermediaries with the duty
of introducing clients enabling them to run their business.
General Agents: As mentioned by Micklitz and
Durovic, (2017, p.69), this type of agent has the power of performing
all the acts related to business in accordance with the interest of his principal.
Co-Agents: Two or more person is appointed to jointly act as co-agents
with the concurrence in the effort of their power unless situations reveal any
motive to the contrary.
Sub-Agents: This type of agents under the command of the original agent
is employed and performs accordingly in the business of the agency.
According to Brown et al. (2017, p.397), the duties of an agent are described
in the following:
●
As per the interest of the
principal, an agent needs to perform accordingly. The commanding power remains
with the principal itself.
●
Within the authority
assigned to the agent by the principal, an agent needs to act on the given
instructions.
●
With a decent amount of
care, an agent needs to perform all his responsibilities. All kinds of issues
must be avoided with respect to his interests.
●
In accordance with all the
instructions of the laws provided by some upper authorities, an agent needs to
maintain the conformity.
As stated by Voiculescu, (2017, p.227),
the rights of an agent discussed are the following:
Retainer rights: The amount which is paid to an
agent by the principal, an agent has the right to deduct an amount from the
amount which he has developed through his performance.
Indemnity rights: In case of any sufferings caused by
an agent, this right states that the principal will be answerable to him.
Lien right: If the legal duties are not fulfilled, an agent has the
power of maintaining the ownership of the property.
Remuneration: For all the services the agent has provided, he is legally
labeled to receive payments.
Stoppage in transit: As opined by Shackelford et al. (2017, p.115), in case the
buyer of products becomes insolvent, an unpaid seller has the right to stop in
terms of transition. It is said that as long as they are in the transition
process, an agent may resume the occupancy of the goods and may absorb them
till the payment procedure is made.
Monopolies in UK are those which has
a market share of more than 25% with a lot of power in the market. According to
Burton, (2017,
p.69), in monopolies, there is only a supplier and the products have
less or no substitutes. Monopolies include the Britain Post office.
Whereas anti-competitive practices
are those which includes illegal deals and agreements among businesses in a
particular market to join forces against the consumers , competitors or the
suppliers which can reduce competition in the market. As stated by Wilson, et al. (2017, p.448), this can be
done by either raising the prices up or down which will harm the consumers and
competitors respectively. Anti competitive practices also include Pricing
strategies which can be done by making the market unappealing or by making the
entry cost too high. This strategy usually is used to restrict the entry of a
competitor. There is another way to damage the sales of a particular company by
forcing the suppliers to stop supply of products or by forcing the retailers to
place the products of certain company where buyers usually don’t take a look at
or to be clear these products are used out of eye level reach.
● Competitive commission (CC)
generally look after appeals made against the rules and regulations formed by
the OFT (Office of Fair Trading).
● The CC also looks after mergers or
companies and its working procedure. The CC also includes investigation of
markets and report to the secretary of the state based on its findings Singer, (2017, p.17).
● The CMA (Competition and Market
Authority) which has taken the responsibilities of CC and OFT, helps in the development
of competition both interior and exterior parts of UK.
● The CMA also investigates some
markets where there is some suspicious matter taking place which has its impact
in multiple markets. The participants of the market also can take steps if they
have any issues and the CMA looks after that.
● The CMA carries or can carry on
their investigation as per the Enterprise Act(2002). The mergers which
sometimes can lesser the competition should try to prevent these between them
during the investigation process.
● Investigation of personal or
individual businesses to observe if they have violated any anti-competitive
agreements prohibited by the UK or EU.
● Criminal proceedings are brought
against them who does Cartel Offences under the act EA02.
● Prohibiting the unfair trading
practices by bringing the criminal offences under The Consumer Protections from
Unfair Trading regulations(CPRs)
● CMA regulates the license policies,
price arrangements, other regulatory methods including legislature of specific
sectors like gas, electricity, aviation etc.
● The CMA in case of mergers and
monopolies look after the company economy, market share, development of the
company, undertaking of different orders and local monopolies.
As mentioned by Bisalski et al. (2017, p.9), the dominant
positions are those which can be achieved by monetary strength. The people
acquiring the dominant position are usually immune of the competitors and the
the consumers. People in the dominant positions are not only economically
strong but also have a greater share of the market. Compared to others, their
product quality and availability is better and in greater demand. Survey
reports suggest that dominant companies or people give a better sales rate and
show a better business. As mentioned by Dove and Bryant (2016, p.263), the
dominant positions are not only identified by the portion of market share but
also the satisfaction of consumers and behaviour of other companies. Companies
or positions including more than 40% share are considered as dominant. It is
taken into account that if there is any other conditions or barriers
restricting the entry of certain companies in the market.
According to Seligson, (2017, p.21), the
EU makes sure that exemptions are made in the building of a marketplace in the
interior of the country. The main motive is to develop and promote business
within member states and different parties without any issues or problems.
Article 101 which states to prohibit restrictive agreements and article 102
which prohibits the unfair use of dominant positions are the major targets of
Competition law. These laws are made to conduct certain business without any
hassle in business and to conduct businesses fluently. There are four
conditions to be followed in order to satisfy this. They are:
● There should be development in the
goods production and economic process.
● There must be fair share of benefits
available to the consumers achieved as a result.
● The elimination of certain companies
from competition by any agreement should be prohibited.
● There are certain rules and
regulations which are necessary to avoid the achievement of these goals.
There are two types of Intellectual
property (IP), Automatic and Application.
● Automatic type of IP include Design
right, copyright and patent mark.
As stated by Frankel, (2016, p.91), design
right is applied automatically to particular design and protects it for 10
years after it was sold or 15 years after the design was created. The rights of
the owners are reserved in this case and a new design or impression should be different
from it to be qualified. If the designer commissions anybody for the design
then the rights differ.
Copyright is usually used to protect
certain documents which are creative and unique in nature. The copyright life
can be different from 50 years for artistic and dramatic works to 25 years for
photographs. Copyrights prevent others from stealing,copying or posting
protected documents in the internet. If there is any such issue the owner can
recover the exact file from the damaged file and also can sue the person whole
stole or damaged the work.
Patent marks are rights offering
protection to certain inventions of a country and this works on a country
basis. Patent right excludes important schemes, games, computer process and
application, business. Patent rights are very useful for protecting
technological discoveries such as medicines, tools, certain parts of machine
and so on. The patent rights in UK takes 3 to 5 years to be granted through
Intellectual Property Office in UK.
● Applicable type includes the
registered marks like the Trademarks and registered designs.
Trademarks are those signs or
symbols on the products which distinguishes one product from the other. As
mentioned by (Perry-Kessaris,
(2016, p.31), trademarks are dated back to ancient times when people
used to put their sign on a certain product or products. Thus every product in
the market differs from each other in the field of trademarks and anything made
similar is considered as duplicate. The process of registration takes almost 4
months if no one has any objections and it lasts for almost 10 years. There are
two types of trade names registered and unregistered trademarks. The trademarks
are used to protect the brand name of any company and if anyone copies or
steals the brand name, then the owner has the right to take legal actions.
As stated by Landry, (2016, p.165) registered
designs are those which are used to protect articles containing certain design,
shapes, patterns. It takes almost a month to register this and this process
provides protection rights up to 25 years. The conditions on which this
registration relies are the product should be a new one, should not use the
designs or patterns of protected emblems like the rings of Olympic and the
content should not be offensive in nature.
● Lawrence et al.
(2017, p.68) opined that the stand alone nature of certain things can be
protected by the invocation of Patent Laws. To take into explainable examples,
innovative machines or its parts, the formula of newly discovered medicines,
etc can be protected. Patenting laws gives one the power to protect such
technological inventions and products.
●
An invention is protected by a patent and hence, grants the invocation
of legal actions against the pirated use of the invention which includes anyone
who tries to duplicate the item, or tries to sell or obtain the invention
without prior permission of the patent holder. Even using the item without
permission or consent is taken into account.
● For an item to be protected by patent
laws in the UK, an application has to be made in account of the Intellectual
Property Office (IPO). Generally, a time period of 3 to 5 years is required for
the grant of patent laws to an item (Buss and Peukert, 2015, p.981).
A patent is valid depending on the
following:
● When the item is new and original, i.e.
an unusual novelty.
● The item being not obvious to someone
who is skilled in the discussed art, i.e. inventive.
● The item being applicable in industrial
uses.
Exclusions of patentability includes
playing games, sets of methods or rules to perform mental acts, doing business,
crucial schemes and computer programs (Bentley and Sherman, 2014, p. 44).
The infringement of a patent is done
in the UK by performing certain acts without the consent of the patentee, which
includes:
● Sculpting, discarding or proposing to
discard, holding possession of a patented item or an item acquired by a direct
process of patent procedures or utilizing it.
● Making use or offering to make usage of
the patented process in the UK.
● Providing or offering to provide the
patented item in the United Kingdom by a person who is not the actual license
holder with any opportunity that relates to the main spark of the patented
invention to be put into effect.
Fate of the infringers is set by a
various categories which include:
● The breach of a patent is an issue to be
looked over with civil laws and not criminal laws.
● Doings for the injunction, or an account
of the profits made, and even damages can be presented in the Patents Court, a
part belonging to the Chancery Division of the High Court.
● The Patents County Court is set up by
the 1998 Act.
● The Patents Act 2004 which is currently
in action allows the patent office to offer an independent opinion which is not
binded, on the validity of patents and their breaches.
The work of artists is protected by
copyright, stopping others from making use of it without the patentee’s
consent. The following creations are automatically protected by copyright:
● Works of arts, music, dramatic or other
literary creations original in ideas, including citations and photography.
● Original works of non-literary skills,
like software, databases or web contents.
●
Audios and musical recordings
● Motion pictures or television recordings
and broadcasts
● Papageorgiadis et al. (2016,
p.267) analyzed that copyright also protects layout of editions of works
in fields of writing, drama and music which have been published
Things to be done by the patentee if
the copyright has been breached:
● The owner can sue the broacher in the
court of law if a copyright is being infringed and may seek an authoritative
warning in against chances of future violations of the patent
● The patentee may attempt to recover the
actual damages, including the losses suffered and also the profits made by the
infringer by using the patented work. The owner can also choose to receive a
fixed amount to compensate the damages as explained in the copyright statute
(Aghion et al. 2015, p.231)
● If the claim meets success, civil
remedies may be called upon, like an award of damages or effective immediate
orders to make the infringer stop using the product.
It is often a case that the brand or
trademark is seen as synonymous to the product, thus making brand names and
trademarks as high prices assets to a business. Specific products or even names
of companies are identified by their brand names. When the brand name works its
way in the job, positive images and vibes are projected on the consumers, thus
making the brand name dearly valuable. Often, in some cases, the everyday
vernacular is represented by the brand name, eg., hoover to mean vacuum.
On the other hand, a trademark is
referred to a sign having the capability to distinguish goods or services
provided by one undertaking from the other, and also are represented
graphically. It often contains words, letters, design or various shapes to represent
their product. It is due to the importance of the brand’s name that the
companies want to get it secured through trade marking (Wang et al. 2014, p.264).
The difference between the both can
be pointed as:
● At various local and state levels, brand
names can be incorporated as trades name. Corporations, partnerships and
limited liability companies holding business structures may register with the
state. Whereas, trademarks are acquired from Patent and Trademark Office by
registering the brand name by providing a sample of the brand name for
submission along with an application and its fee (Sharpio, 2016, p.198).
● By providing a doing-business-as
statement within your region notifies the local area about the business name.
For the case of trademark registration, the process is lengthy and has legal
implications.
● A trademark protection is valid
generally for 10 years, which needs to be renewed in between the fifth and
sixth years after the registration. It can also be done by filing an Affidavit
of Use before the end of every 10th year period. In Case of of brand names,
there happen to be no time frame limitations, except for restrictions invoked
at local levels (Oswald, 2014, p.17).
For trademarks, there is allowance
of a grace time of six months at the end of 10th year during which the
registration of the trademark can be kept as it is by providing an additional
fee.
The scenarios paves way for the
basic understanding of laws as applied to business relations and also protecting
innovations by patent laws. The walk through of the problems clarifies how to
deal with the problems taking toll in day to day life, thus helping
simplification of the issues by being empathetic to both the parties.
Careful analysis and breakdown of the
problems allows the implication of the laws designed to be enforced at various
situations such as crooked behavior of organizations’ or their failure to meet
their boastings. Light is also shed on the protection of original ideas, works
and creations through patenting, and invoking laws to protect them.
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