Deck 5: Trade Secrets and Conflict of Interest

Question 1

If a company gains information on a company through misrepresentation, this is a breach of____________.

A) property
B) honesty
C) trust
D) privacy

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What is a trade secret, and why is the government invested in helping companies protect them?

Answer 2

Not Answer

Question 3

The Wexler case found that Greenberg had the right to his own formulas because .

A) it would be unfair for his old company to use those formulas
B) his new company did not own the rights to the formulas
C) no one owned the rights to the formulas that Greenberg had created
D) not allowing him to do so would unfairly restrict his ability to compete with the new company

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Trade-secret protection agreements that are based on confidentiality assume that .

A) the trade secret was not developed by the employee
B) the employee will not work for other companies
C) the employer is involved in a high-tech industry
D) the employee will eventually work for a competitor

Question 5

Arthur Andersen's double role with Enron represented a conflict of interest because .

A) Arthur Andersen made too much of a profit from one client
B) Enron did not reveal everything to Arthur Andersen that they should have
C) Arthur Andersen had incentive not to make criticisms that would hurt their consulting role
D) Arthur Andersen did not know their client well enough to be both consulting and auditing them

Question 6

Why are noncompetition agreements with employees uncommon?

A) Most employees stay with the same company for a long time.
B) Most employees are not in a position to use trade secrets with another company
C) They are difficult to enforce.
D) They can result in difficulty for an employee to subsequently find suitable work.

Question 7

Conflicts of interest are an ethical problem for a business because they____________.

A) violate an individual's right to privacy
B) create profits that would be owed to other companies instead
C) create incentive for company representatives to act against others' best interest
D) prevent the company from succeeding as well as it might otherwise

Question 8

How do conflicts of interest arise in business, and what can be done to prevent them?

Question 9

Courts have difficulty determining____________.

A) what constitutes a trade secret
B) whether trade secrets should be protected
C) why companies want to protect trade secrets
D) the extent to which trade secrets have been pursued

Question 10

What are the ethical and legal limits that have been placed on competitor intelligence gathering by companies?

Question 11

The question of intellectual property ownership becomes most complicated when .

A) the intellectual property involves new technology
B) an inventor works for a company that manufactures the invention
C) the intellectual property is for
D) the inventor owns the right to many different patents

Question 12

One source of the idea that trade secrets are a form of property is the view that .

A) trade should always be free and unrestricted
B) each person owns the product of their labor
C) property should be had in common by all people
D) companies should be able to make a profit however they can

Question 13

The Economic Espionage Act of 1996____________.

A) was primarily aimed at protecting against domestic spying
B) was primarily aimed at protecting foreign companies in the U.S.
C) has been effective in protecting against domestic spying
D) was the first law in the U.S. to protect trade secrets