Intellectual property and ethics

Learning Outcomes

Students should gain familiarity with the following elements of business information literacy and specific information resources.

Information Literacy:

• Discuss issues of business ethics
• Understand the concepts of intellectual property; specifically copyright, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets.

Resources: [Merck Code of Conduct] [Eli Lilly Redbook] [Non-disclosure Agreement] [United States Patent & Trademark Office] [Top 5 Intellectual Property Disputes]

Premise

Students are grouped in teams of 4-6 students. They are representing a discussion group of company employees. First they will be presented with a selection of excerpts from several articles discussing business ethics. They will then be posed with a discussion question regarding reporting unethical behavior. The question will be debriefed before moving on to the 2nd case.

The same groups will then be presented with the intellectual property case. They will review Part A and discuss the questions followed by a short debrief. Then they will read Part B and discuss the questions. As well as making private individual guesses about what products and companies are involved in the case.

Preliminary Discussion

An important facet of business information literacy is the understanding of intellectual property issues.