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Maichael Bessada

UTILIZATION OF WORKS AS ILLUSTRATIONS FOR TEACHING 150 150 Maichael Bessada

UTILIZATION OF WORKS AS ILLUSTRATIONS FOR TEACHING

A.     ANALYSIS[1] Out of the 17 countries studied, we found 14 countries whose copyright laws contained an exception making possible the utilization of works as illustrations for teaching. The countries are as follows: –        Algeria (Article 43), –        Bahrain (Article 21 (b)), –        Djibouti (Article 41(c)), –        Egypt (Article 171(6)), –        Iraq (Article 14 (2)), –        Jordan (Article 17(c)), –        Libya (Article 17), –        Morocco (Article 15) –        Qatar (Article 18(2)), –        Saudi Arabia (Articles 15 (3) and 15(9)), –        Sudan (Article 14(3) and 14(6)), –        Syrian Arab Republic (Article 37(1) c)), –        Tunisia (new Article 10), –        United Arab Emirates (Article 22(8)), The copyright laws of Kuwait and Lebanon do not appear to contain provisions of this type, while the copyright laws of Oman are not clear in this respect.  Article 20(2) allows a certain form of using works for teaching purposes in a classroom setting.  However, its scope appears so limited that we…

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What are Intellectual Property Rights? 150 150 Maichael Bessada

What are Intellectual Property Rights?

Intellectual property (IP)[1] rights are the rights awarded by society to individuals or organizations principally over creative works: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce. They give the creator the right to prevent others from making unauthorized use of their property for a limited period. IP is categorized as Industrial Property (functional commercial innovations), and Artistic and Literary Property (cultural creations). Current technological developments are blurring, to some extent, this distinction, and some hybrid sui generis systems are emerging.   Industrial Property Patents: A patent is an exclusive right awarded to an inventor to prevent others from making, selling, distributing, importing, or using their invention, without license or authorization, for a fixed period of time (TRIPS stipulates 20 years minimum from the filing date). In return, society requires that the patent applicant disclose the invention in a manner that enables others to put it into practice. This increases…

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The Impact of Corruption on International Commercial Contracts 150 150 Maichael Bessada

The Impact of Corruption on International Commercial Contracts

1.1   Introduction[1] Corruption is generally considered one of the greatest enemies of international trade. Where corruption runs rampant, fair players are prevented from accessing the market, and performance and quality are excluded from competition by those who use bribery as a means of acquiring contracts. It is a problem of vast magnitude: according to a frequently quoted World Bank study, an estimated USD1 trillion in bribes are paid each year. Corruption is said to increase the total cost of doing business globally by up to 10 % and the cost of procurement contracts in developing countries by up to 25 %. This means that for the EU alone approximately EUR120 billion, or 1 % of its GDP, is lost to corruption every year. The international community has therefore undertaken serious efforts to tackle the problem of corruption; the topic has been of the highest priority since the mid-1990s. Countless sets of rules have mushroomed up…

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General Principles of Transport Law and the Rotterdam Rules 150 150 Maichael Bessada

General Principles of Transport Law and the Rotterdam Rules

1          Background The long-awaited and much-anticipated “United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea”,  which will be known as the “Rotterdam Rules”,  was formally adopted by the U.N. General Assembly on 11th December 2008.  It has been open for signature since 23rd September 2009 (when the first sixteen nations signed the Convention at the formal signing ceremony in Rotterdam). This new convention represents the culmination of 8 years of intensive work by the U.N. Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and its Working Group III on Transport Law,  which followed almost 4 years of preparatory work by the Comite´ Maritime International (CMI).  It will enter into force after twenty countries have ratified it.  Several countries are already well advanced in the ratification process, including the United States. As this paper goes to press, however, it appears that Spain is the closest to ratifying the new convention. The…

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Controversial Patent Cases involving Traditional Knowledge and Genetic Resources  150 150 Maichael Bessada

Controversial Patent Cases involving Traditional Knowledge and Genetic Resources 

Turmeric [1] Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is a plant of the ginger family yielding saffron-colored rhizomes used as a spice for flavoring Indian cooking. It also has properties that make it an effective ingredient in medicines, cosmetics, and color dye. As a medicine, it is traditionally used to heal wounds and rashes.   In 1995, two Indian nationals at the University of Mississippi Medical Centre were granted US patent no. 5,401,504 on “use of turmeric in wound healing”.The Indian Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) requested the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to re-examine the patent.CSIR argued that turmeric has been used for thousands of years for healing wounds and rashes and therefore its medicinal use was not novel.Their claim was supported by documentary evidence of traditional knowledge, including an ancient Sanskrit text and a paper published in 1953 in the Journal of the Indian Medical Association.Despite arguments by the patentees, the USPTO upheld the…

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?What Is a Commercial Contract 150 150 Maichael Bessada

?What Is a Commercial Contract

The commercial contract is[1] in modern times the contract concluded between professionals in their business dealings. It assumes parties habitually entering into such contracts with others who are similarly knowledgeable in their trade or similar business with the aim of making some profit doing so. Professionals in this sense are likely to be only companies or similar legal entities, not individuals, and certainly not consumers. Furthermore, their business is likely to be on some scale while the interests to be promoted or defended are considerable. Another feature is that these contracts increasingly operate in the international sphere and are embedded in a globalized environment that co-determines their structure and operation even if on the occasion the transaction is still purely domestic. Although in all situations where distinctions are made there are borderline cases and especially with respect to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), there may be justified doubts, this should not distract. An older distinction…

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The Contents of the Contract 150 150 Maichael Bessada

The Contents of the Contract

Once the contract[1] is validly concluded, the second stage of its life begins: the parties have to perform in conformity with what they promised. Fortunately, this does not pose a problem in the great majority of cases; the parties doing what they should do will automatically lead to the extinction of their respective obligations. However, the law also needs to provide rules for those cases in which problems do arise. It can be that the parties are in disagreement about what they actually agreed upon 1- Interpretation The law shares with literature and theology the characteristic that it is an interpretative discipline: legislative statutes, governmental decisions, treaties, and written contracts may be unclear and therefore have to be interpreted. In contract law, this interpretation often takes place implicitly, even without the parties realizing it.   2- Reasonable Person All European jurisdictions adopt a compromise between attaching importance to intention and declaration. As a general principle,…

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