dolution

/in /by

dolution.

Whilst  top  companies  such  as  IBM  and  Tesco  say  that  the  customer  is  king,  will  customer choice continue to be unrestrained in a) 2020 and b) 2050? Explain your  thinking in each future state scenario.

The barbecue sauce focal firm  has manufacturing facilities  in the Netherlands which are described as ‘high on quality and reliability, but low on  responsiveness’. In order  to maximise production  efficiency, large batches of  each  flavour are made  so  that process cleanouts  (each lasting > four hours) are kept  to  a minimum.  After manufacturing,  each  batch  of  a  given flavour  is  transported  to  an  off-site  finishing  operation,  where  bottles  of  the  different  flavours  are  packed  into a display box for attractive presentation to the end-customer at the firm’s retail  customers. This process takes an average of two weeks because of the need to ensure  that  all  flavours  are  available.  Finally,  the  display  boxes  are  distributed  through  warehousing operations which have been situated in six carefully selected locations  around the product’s major European market in Germany. Management of the focal firm is under pressure to reduce inventories and stock  write-offs  (the  sauce has  a  shelf life of  three months). Propose what  actions could  be  taken  to  improve  the  supply  chain  to  permit  improved  responsiveness  to  endcustomer demand.

 

dolution

 
"Looking for a Similar Assignment? Get Expert Help at an Amazing Discount!"

dolution

/in /by

dolution.

WHY: The purpose of this assignment is to conduct a patent search and produce a patent report

WHAT: The U.S. Patent literature is an invaluable resource for ideas and also the place to go to determine if your concept is unique and patentable. Although comprehensive searches are best done by professionals, students are fully capable of doing a capable and competent job searching the patent literature. For this deliverable, you will conduct a comprehensive search and produce a professional search report.

Your report should start with the product description and the search objective. Search objectives might include to (1) determine patentability, (2) investigate related prior art, (3) get product ideas, or (4) see how existing products work.

Describe how you conducted the search and the limitations of your search. This should include:

1. What online and offline patent search resources you used. If you chose to restrict yourself to the USPTO online search engine, explain why this was a valid choice

2. The keywords, class and subclasses you searched (provide numbers and names) and why. State the total number of U.S. patents in each relevant subclass.

3. Your level of confidence in having found or not found all relevant patents.

The report should then detail the results of your search. Organize the results into patents that are (1) most relevant, (2) somewhat relevant, (3) interesting but not relevant.

For each patent include the inventor, assignee (company), patent number, filing date, issue date, title and a one or two sentence description. This can be in table form.

In addition, patents in category 1 require a detailed description and a thorough analysis of how it is relevant. The appendix to your report should have copies of the front pages of any patent mentioned in your search results, and full copies of any patents that are in category 1 (unless the patent is very long). Your list of relevant patents should describe the patent and its relevance to the project in your own words. Straight copying of text from the patent itself isn’t particularly useful because the legal language of patents is often difficult to understand. In particular, point out the one or two patents the client should pay particular attention to and why.

Important: Use a keyword search to find relevant classes and subclasses. Then do a search by subclass. One of the better ways to find the relevant set of subclasses is to find patents close to your product and note (1) the class and subclass of the patent (listed in the “U.S. Class” field on the front page of the patent), (2) The classes and subclasses listed in the “Field of Search” heading which tells where the patent examiner searched for competing patents, and (3) the classes and subclasses for the patents listed in the “References cited” section on the front page of the patent. If you only search by keywords, you are likely to miss the most important patents.

Resources:

1. Pressman, “Patent It Yourself”, Nolo Press. (Excellent introduction to intellectual property, patents, patent searching and patent writing.)

2. Hitchcock, “Patent Searching Made Easy”, Nolo Press. (Good, tutorial information on how to conduct a patent search yourself)

3. Stim, “Patent Pending in 24 Hours”, Nolo Press. (How to write a provisional patent.)

4. USPTO: how to search resources

5. Google patent searching

6. USPTO patent searching

7. USPTO patent searching by patent number

8. Pat2PDF and freepatentsonline for getting PDF versions of patents. (Google also can generate a PDF.)

9. http://www.boliven.com is a site for conducting patent, trademark and other related

searches.

Suggested strategy:

Your search should turn up 100’s of patent numbers. If you get less than 20 patents, broaden your search. To find very early patents, look at the “References Cited” section of key patents you find.

Now the hard work begins. The task is to sort your patents into Hot, Medium, or Cold where Hot are those patents most closely related to your project. Bring up each patent on the USPTO web site and do a quick scan in an attempt to categorize. Write a one-line annotation that describes the patent. For patents in the Hot and Medium categories, print off the front page to include in the appendix of the report (or save in TIFF or PDF format for inclusion in an electronic

version of the report). For patents in the Hot category, read the entire patent including the claims and write a more detailed analysis of the patent for the report. If you find a SuperHot

patent, include the entire patent in the appendix of the report. (If the patent is longer than 20 pages, print the front matter, the most relevant drawings, and the claims).

Checklist for your report

1. Your search report contains the names and numbers of the relevant patent Classes and SubClasses, and why they are relevant.

2. Your report has evidence that you searched both by key word and by subclass. Note that if you only use keyword search only, you will miss the 4 million patents prior to 1976 because fulltext search of the patent database starts with 1976.

3. You have not only listed relevant patents, but have also described why the patent is relevant and how it impacts on your proposed design. The report states your team’s level of confidence in having found all relevant U.S. patents

dolution

 
"Looking for a Similar Assignment? Get Expert Help at an Amazing Discount!"

dolution

/in /by

dolution.

sa Zsa Hilton, a wealthy socialite living in Beverly Hills, was frantic. Her best friend in the world was her pet poodle Caboodles, and Caboodles had been missing for three (3) days. Having searched her estate exhaustively, Zsa Zsa decided that her next best option was to post a reward for her beloved Caboodles.
Zsa Zsa carefully prepared a poster advertising a reward for the return of her pet. The heading of the poster exclaimed “Please find Caboodles—Reward–$25,000!!!” Below the heading was a color “glamour shot” of the animal and Zsa Zsa’s contact information, including her address and cell phone number. After soliciting the assistance of her butler, her maid, and her best friend Eva Ritchie, Zsa Zsa displayed and distributed one thousand of the posters throughout the greater Beverly Hills metropolitan area.
Later in the week, Dane “Bulldog” Sheppard showed up at Zsa Zsa’s front door. When she answered the door chime, Dane said “I am pleased to meet you, Ms. Hilton. I saw your ad for the return of your lost poodle, and I am your man. I will find him, Ms. Hilton, and let me say in advance that I really appreciate the $25,000 bounty, um, reward money!”

Is this a valid contract?

7. Do both parties have contractual capacity?

8. Are there any contractual defenses?

9. If there are contractual defenses, what are the rebuttals to those defenses?

dolution

 
"Looking for a Similar Assignment? Get Expert Help at an Amazing Discount!"

dolution

/in /by

dolution.

The term business is very broad and is used with a variety of meanings. While trying to develop the meaning of business relevant to the study of commerce and industry, we can in the meantime refer to it as some kind of human occupation, the numerous and varied activities that man undertakes during his life time. It is an enterprise that provides products or services which are desired by customers. Customers are the users of the products or services. Human activities undertaken by man are so varied that we have to distinguish them to be able to arrive at those that would be referred to as business. They involve working to create wealth and are what we refer to as occupations or employment. Classical economic theory of business enterprise and behaviour explains the objective of a business in terms of profit maximization. However, contemporary economists realized that profit maximization is not the sole objective of a firm. On this, Joel Dean in his book “Managerial Economics, though restating the same position as that of classical economics, qualifies profit maximization as a business objective in the long run. A business may be organized by an individual as a sole proprietorship, or by an association of persons by mutual agreement as a partnership’ or by an association of persons who form a co-operative society for the purpose or by a number of persons as a joint-stock company and for all these to operate successfully, good leadership and management must be exhibited thereof. However, just like the business product itself, marketing is a phenomenon which needs to be studied and understood for success of a business.

Qn a) The term business is very broad and is used with a variety of meanings, with your understanding of the term, describe features that qualify an activity to be a business.

b) Contemporary economists realized that profit maximization is not the sole objective of a firm, with your knowledge of business, explain other reasons for the establishment and existence of a business.

c) A business may be organized in a variety of ways,

i) Examine the various ways you would form a partnership business.

ii) With examples, describe the different types of partnerships.

d) A business is successful only when it is properly managed. With your experience in business,

i) Discuss common factors that may affect a manager’s effectiveness.

ii) Delegation is key in the successful management of any business, advise a University business on how delegation can effectively be done.

e) Marketing mix is used to describe the major inputs that constitute the core of a company’s marketing system,

i) Examine the key functions played by the distribution channels in the marketing process.

ii) With examples, describe the various players in the distribution channels that facilitate the marketing of a business product in your country.

dolution

 
"Looking for a Similar Assignment? Get Expert Help at an Amazing Discount!"