Business Law Issues of Apple - Essay Example

? Business Law Business Law With the headquarters located in Cupertino, California, this is the company which is known to have the most liquid assets , and is involved in the designing, manufacturing and selling the consumer electronic devices and the related software and the services as well. Apple is known for its products such as the iPhone, iPad , Mac, iPad, Apple Televisions which are know to be absolutely revolutionary and have evolved the world of technology. On the software side , Apple is known for the software applications such as the iOS , Mac OS X and iCloud. The point of sales are located world wide and it is able to sell its digital content via the iBookstore , iTunes , App Store, and the Mac App Store as well. The company came in to being in the year 1977, and is now regarded as the world’s largest companies. The company currently has assets worth over a $70 billion and now has devised huge plans for this years and the upcoming five years as well. As per the annual report filling which is necessary with the Securities Exchange Commission of the United States , the company will be expanding its retail operations and the business. First off the retail business of teh company will be expanded where an approximate investment of about $900 million will be spent as a result of which the total Apple retail outlets will come to be about 357. In China, the company will be taking an initiative to increase the number of stores because this is the region where Apple faces the problem of the fake Apple stores and since the Chinese market is expanding at the same time as well. Some of the stores of Apple will also be replaced , which include inside the United States as well as outside of the region. Approximately $7 billion will also be spent on the production process equipment , the infrastructure facilities if the company and the enhancements of the information systems ,hardware and software technologies as well. With the construction of the new Apple Campus taking place in California, a significant chunk of the revenue of the company will also be allotted to the purpose of the space ship campus. There are massive research facilities , plants and auditoriums being arranged in the campus which will be expanded over the 150 acres of land. Most importantly , there will be significant expenditure on the ‘solar farm’ idea of the company which will be powerhouse of the data center and this is where nearly all the operations of the iCloud will be carried out. Therefore apart from the space ship campus being built in Cupertino, there is another facility being constructed for Apple in North Carolina which will be powered by the solar energy. There will be significant amount of investment in the research, manufacture and the marketing of the products as well, where Apple will be introducing new products in the market that are believed to revolutionize the world of technology. Apple will also be taking measures to improve the supply chain and establish a stronger relationship with its manufacturers, Foxconn. Foxconn came under the limelight of controversies due to the below average working conditions that the entity had and therefore Apple is seeking to improve the labor conditions of the Chinese workers whereas at the same time the company is striving to increase the consumer satisfaction as well. In order to achieve this objective, Apple will be paying for half the cost which is involved in making the working conditions better. Therefore the improvements in the supply chain will be followed by making the working conditions of the manufacturers better, which is Foxconn. The expansion policies of the company will have to take under consideration the administration law which is defined as the law body responsible for the governance of the administration agencies’ activities. Apple has been quite in the limelight for the past many years for the patent infringement law suits which have been filed against various companies and the lawsuits filed by other companies on Apple. Some of these names include Research In Motion, Kodak , Samsung , HTC etc. Even in China, the company has been exposed to the patent infringement lawsuits and one of the most popular lawsuits that it is exposed to is the name of iPad which has a trademark dispute over the name of the tablet. There was another lawsuit filed on the company by Kodak which was won by Apple over the digital image preview technology and the International Trade Commission ruled that Apple did not violate any laws regarding this particular technology and hence it is invalid. Since Apple is trading internationally and it has lawsuits filed all over the world, it is important for the company to know that it devotes resources to the international market as well and make sure at the same time that the entity has the lawyer in each of the country who is qualified enough to counsel the company on the trading practices and that the trade mark and the copyrights are well protected as well. Moreover, it is important for Apple to conduct or carry out due diligence on the issue of the Intellectual property so that the ownership rights can be earned by the company itself and it also has to make sure that the warranties over he intellectual property ownership are also obtained so that later down the lane the company does not have to incur or face any lawsuits regarding the intellectual property. Lastly, but very importantly, Apple needs to make sure that its trademarks are protected in the international market so that they do not have to run in to the lawsuits by the other foreign companies which are already using the brand name, like in the case of Apple. Conclusively, over the past few years , Apple has become the victim of the many patent infringement lawsuits due to which the unnecessary money has been spent on the issue. The trademark protection is an important issue for the company and the brand name has to be protected offshore as well. In order to carry on with the brand name which has won the hearts of many all over the world, compliance with the sales, administrative, licensing laws is very important. References APPLE INC (AAPL:NASDAQ GS): Stock Quote & Company Profile – Businessweek Retrieved from http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?ticker=AAPL:US "Apple - Legal." Apple - Legal. Web. 28 May 2012. http://www.apple.com/legal/ "Apple." Apple. Web. 28 May 2012. . Wade, W., & Forsyth, C. (2000). Administrative law. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More

 

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