A brief examination of the fashion world reveals a multitude of learning opportunities for the business law curriculum. Fashion Law, a niche legal practice that addresses the broad range of business law concerns facing the fashion industry, has only recently gained a more respected position within legal research, debate, and discourse. This…

Trademarks represent an important driver of firm profitability and brand awareness and, as such, are of growing interest to many business students. This article presents an exercise that can be used to introduce both undergraduate and graduate-level business students to the federal trademark registration process, while providing students with…

When professors teach complex topics like trademarks in a business law or legal environment class, the delivery is often too abstract. Textbooks tend to focus on black-letter basics of trademark law, ignoring strategic considerations. Experienced managers know that the strongest trademarks (legally speaking) do not necessarily sell products. These…

This article demonstrates how the case at hand, Teal Bay Alliances, LLC v. Southbound One, Inc., can be used as the core of a business case to teach students not only the basics of trademark law, but also as a real-world cautionary tale whose moral boils down to this: lawyers and businesspeople approach legal disputes from very different…

This article suggests ways to incorporate legal issues related to the Olympic Games into a business law or legal environment course. As demonstrated in previous issues of this journal and elsewhere, material related to sports law can serve as an engaging supplement to traditional legal subjects. Topics that can be related to the Olympics include…

This article provides an actual case that is designed to highlight business and legal issues that should be considered when operations expand and ownership changes. Of particular significance in this case is the focus on modernizing operations without losing the original organization's commitment to the environment and its cultural mission. The…

In today's Internet-based and global business environment, the legal issues companies face will often involve issues of intellectual property. Virtually every product people purchase is protected by a trademark, a patent, and/or copyrights. Thus, basic concepts of intellectual property are a natural component in any business law or legal…

Aaron Sorkin has a passion for words--his signature movie and television scripts are fast talking, jargon laced, word pictures that are instantly recognizable. "The Social Network," Sorkin's 2011 Academy Award Winning movie about the founding of Facebook, Inc., offers more than just witty banter; it provides an ideal teaching platform for…

Trade secrets can be a valuable company asset because of their potential to last forever. Unfortunately, along with such a significant benefit, there is also a significant risk--the risk that the trade secret can be lost in an instant if it is not sufficiently protected. Companies must be vigilant in protecting these secrets. However, the law is…

A Harvard Business School-style teaching case can be a powerful pedagogical tool to teach law and ethics to business students because instructors can combine a traditional business case study with Socratic-style dialogue and legal analysis from a managerial perspective. This teaching note includes suggestions for several methods of using the case,…