Practice Question #4: Intellectual Property

Jose was a part-time student in the MBA program at the University of Ottawa. He also worked fulltime at a tech firm where he oversaw the work of 40 employees.

In the summer of 1991 he took a course from Professor Lin. 60% of the mark was based on a term paper. Jose came up with an idea for the paper: to apply statistical analysis to data, which he had available through his employment, to determine the variability to the production time of the custom manufacturing of integrated circuits with a view to reducing the time ranges.

One year later Jose found out that:

1. The University had copied his paper with very little changes, did not give him credit as the author and sold the paper as a case note to MBA students;
2. Professor Lin had presented the paper at a conference in Chicago and again did not give Jose credit.

1. What is the legal issue/question?
2. What is the applicable rule(s) of law?
3. Develop an Argument for the Plaintiff, Jose
4. Develop an Argument for the Defendants and who are they?