Leg 500

Legal and Ethical Considerations in Marketing, Product Safety, and Intellectual Property

Sam Cook

Dr. William Stone

LEG 500

August 28, 2013

1. Research three to five (3-5) ethical issues relating to marketing and advertising, intellectual property, and regulation of product safety.

When looking at PharmaCARE’s relationship with the Colberians, you see that the company’s treatment of the indigenous population is unethical. In terms of intellectual property, the scenario in Assignment 2 highlights the exploitation of the Colberians. While the indigenous population freely shares their information about their cures, the company exploits them by not compensating them for their shared knowledge. According to labor laws, companies should work ethically and treat all of their employees fair -- not equal, but fair. Some employees, based on their position and level of responsibility, should be paid more and should receive better perks than others. However, the company is earning millions of dollars from the knowledge being shared by the healers, and its executives live in luxury with swimming pools, tennis courts, and a golf course, while the Colberians continue to live in huts without electricity or running water. If the company compensated the healers for their intellectual property, the Colberians could improve their living conditions. PharmaCARE is taking advantage of this group of stakeholders because the healers are uneducated, ignorant to intellectual property laws, and do not know the true value of the information they are sharing with PharmaCARE. According to authors S.C. Jain and R. Bird, the Trade-Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is considered the most relevant intellectual property treaty, and nations that have signed on must treat foreign intellectual property rights holders the same as domestic ones (2008, p. 7). Yet, PharmaCARE failed to compensate the healers of Africa in the manner required by U.S. laws.

Next, let...