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United States legal system protects very well the graphic design industry and creative work. The copyright laws are the one that protects and encourage artists, designers, and producers to create patterns that will be protected by the law. Designers produce ideas and products as a result of a mental process that is given legal protection against unauthorized use. The ideas and products are part of intellectual property express through patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. Patents exclude others from making, using, selling, or importing an invention. Design patents protect against copying the appearance or shape of an article. Copyrights prevent others from copying an original expression embodied in any original work of authorship fixed in a tangible medium, among the categories that the United States Copyright Act of 1976 are pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works, and motion pictures. The design industry is also protected by trademarks that identify the source of goods or services. The packaging or dressing of a product may also be protected under the trademark laws. Trade secrets are information that gives the business an advantage over its competitors that do not know the information (Bagley, 2019).

In the case study, Pathways does an excellent job when it comes to intellectual property.

All the work at Pathways deals with intellectual property. Everything the company creates for its clients is the original creative products. In some cases, Pathways obtains the copyright and licenses the material to the clients. The company verifies the ownership of the images and videos provided by its clients before using them on the new website to avoid copyright infringement issues. Any trademarks or logos provided by the client are also checked against the United States Patent and Trademark’s database for authenticity. Pathways review the content created under a license agreement when a client comes in when a website created by another party (Case Study, 2011).

            References

 Bagley, C. E. (2019).  Managers and the Legal Environment: Strategies for the 21st Century. [Digital Bookshelf]. Retrieved from https://digitalbookshelf.artinstitutes.edu/#/books/9781305840676/

Pathways Creative Media, Inc. Case Study (2011). Law, Policy & Ethics in Design and Media Arts. Miami International University of Art & Design. Retrieved from https://myclasses.artinstitutes.edu/d2l/le/content/163734/viewContent/4038329/View