Attempt all the questions.
Section-A
Question1) Describe the main theories of international trade and investment.
Question2) Explain the major features of Multinational Corporations. Critically evaluate relationship between Multinational Corporations and host countries.
Question3) How globalization has affected the economies of developing and less developed countries. Also describe the advantages and disadvantages of globalization for these countries.
Question4) Describe the major features of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). How Foreign Exchange management Act is different from Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA).
Section-B
Case Study
Read the following case carefully and answer the questions given in the end:
After a year of scorched-earth litigation, a jury decided Friday that Samsung ripped off the innovative technology used by Apple to create its revolutionary iPhone and iPad. Jury ordered Samsung to pay Apple $1.05 billion. Appeal is expected. Apple Inc. filed its patent infringement lawsuit in April 2011 and engaged legions of country's highest-paid patent lawyers to demand $2.5 billion from its top Smartphone competitor. Samsung Electronics Co. fired back with its own lawsuit seeking $399 million. But decision, though, belonged to Apple, as jury rejected all Samsung's claim against Apple. Jurors also decided against some of Apple's claims involving two dozen Samsung devices at issue, declining to award the full $2.5 billion Apple demanded. Though, the jury found that a number of Samsung products illegally used such Apple creations as "bounce-back" feature when a user scrolls to an end image, and the ability to zoom text with a finger tap.
As part of its lawsuit, Apple also demanded that Samsung pull its most popular cellphones and computer tablets from the U.S. market. A judge was expected to make that ruling at a later time. During closing arguments at the trial, Apple attorney Harold McElhinny claimed Samsung was having a "crisis of design" after 2007 launch of the iPhone, and executives with South Korean company were determined to illegally cash in on the success of the revolutionary device.
Samsung's lawyers countered that it was simply and legally giving consumers what they desire: Smart phones with big screens. They said Samsung did not violate any of Apple's patents and further alleged innovations claimed by Apple were actually created by other companies. Samsung has emerged as one of Apple's biggest rivals and has overtaken Apple as a leading Smartphone maker. Samsung's Galaxy line of phones run on Android, mobile operating system which Google Inc. has given out for free to Samsung and other phone makers. Samsung conceded that Apple makes great products but said it doesn't have a monopoly on design of rectangle phones with rounded corners that it claimed it created. Google entered the Smartphone market while its then-CEO Eric Schmidt was on Apple's board, infuriating Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who considered Android to be a blatant rip off of the iPhone's innovations.
After shoving Schmidt off Apple's board, Jobs vowed that Apple will resort to "thermonuclear war" to destroy Android and its allies. Apple-Samsung trial in San Jose came after each side filed a blizzard of legal motions and refused advisories by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh to settle dispute out of court. Deliberations by jury of seven men and two women began Wednesday. Samsung has sold 22.7 million smart phones and tablets whihc Apple claimed uses its technology. McElhinny said those devices accounted for $8.16 billion in sales since June 2010. Apple and Samsung combined account for more than half of global Smartphone sales.
From the beginning, legal experts and Wall Street analysts viewed Samsung as underdog in the case. Apple's headquarters is the mere 10 miles from the courthouse, and jurors were picked from heart of Silicon Valley where Apple's late founder Steve Jobs is a revered technological pioneer. Whereas the legal and technological issues were complex, patent expert Alexander I. Poltorak previously said the case will likely boil down to whether jurors believed Samsung's products look and feel almost identical to Apple's iPhone and iPad.
To overcome that challenge at trial, Samsung's lawyers argued that many of Apple's claims of innovation were either obvious concepts or ideas stolen from Sony Corp. and others. Experts called that line of argument high-risk strategy as Apple's reputation as the innovator. Apple's lawyers argued there is almost no difference between Samsung products and those of Apple, and presented internal Samsung documents they said showed it copied Apple designs. Samsung lawyers insisted that a number of other companies and inventors had previously developed much of the Apple technology at issue.
U.S. trial is just latest skirmish between two tech giants over product designs. Apple and Samsung have filed similar lawsuits in eight other countries, including South Korea, Germany, Japan, Italy, Netherlands, Britain, France and Australia. Samsung won the home court ruling Friday in the global patent battle against Apple. Judges in Seoul said Samsung did not copy look and feel of the iPhone and ruled which Apple infringed on Samsung's wireless technology.
Though, judges also said Samsung violated Apple's technology behind the feature which causes a screen to bounce back when a user scrolls to an end image. Both sides were ordered to pay limited damages. Seoul ruling was a rare victory for Samsung in its fight with Apple. Those arguments previously have been shot down by courts in Europe, where judges have ruled that they are part of industry standards that should be licensed under fair terms to competitors.
The U.S. case is one of some 50 lawsuits among myriad telecommunications companies jockeying for position in the burgeoning $219 billion market for smart phones and computer tablets.
Questions:
a) Describe the issues involved in the Case.
b) What type of IPR infringement is involved in the case.