WEEK 8 BOC : Progress in getting a lawyer

For my final project I have made a game plan and it is in action. In the progress of getting a lawyer to answer my 10 questions. I am in the fashion industry I researching 25 lawyers that deal with intellectual property. After I get my list done I will start calling the most interesting lawyers with my questions ready because they might want to answer them on my phone call. I would rather make an appointment with them and go see them. Maybe even use them as an opportunity to make some contacts. I am a very sociable person so this a great I get to learn more about the industry I am going in and meeting a lawyer that deals with the law part protecting a person's creativity. This week I started making calls to a few lawyers not many returned my calls but I am not giving up on getting a lawyer to answer my calls and sit down with me and have a little talk and answer my 10 questions about fashion. I have my 6 out of my 10 questions down. To me it is a little difficult to come up with questions about my major just because there is so much to ask I just need to put it in the right words which is difficult for me to express myself in such way. I finished my permission sample letters so now I know how to do a real letter to use. It was way easier than I thought it would be. The next step is to meet with my lawyer sometime this week I am so excited to move on to the next step. This was easier than I thought it would be. I can not wait to see the final results that I get when I am all done.

WEEK 7 EOC: PLANS

    Today I have to make my plans for my final project for this class, there is so much to do good thing I have plenty of time get everything completed. My plans to get a lawyer is to first make a list and start calling some lawyers right away make an appointment with them and start talking asking questions. I will have to think of some clever questions to ask of course, make myself sound very sophisticated and professional so they take me seriously. I have to start making calls very soon probably this week because if something is #1 on my list it is probably not the the #1 thing on their list since they are such busy people with many appointments and court cases. After I will have all my questions answered I will say thank you for their time and try to keep that connections for later on, or if a ever need a reference I could use the lawyer. I also need to put everything together so I can turn in  my final project with all the right things that I need. I have to put all the laws and my opinions about the topic at the same thing. I will also need to do my letters of permission to I can use it. Putting my project together will be the most exciting part because I love being creative with what I do. I already made my list and made a few calls it is time to make an appointment now. 10 questions all that have to do with my major which is retail management and fashion design I have to be really clever with these questions fashion is more complicated then most people may think. It is a different world and there is much drama with famous fashion designers.

WEEK 6 EOC ILLICIT

Today we watched a video in class that was by far one of the scariest documentaries I have ever seen. The black market is a very dangerous place to be at, yes it does make a lot of money but many suffer in the process. Not only do many people suffer but also our economy, and many successful companies that are being ruined by replica companies.  This is not only about handbags, jewelry, and movies. This also happens with human kidneys, and body parts. This mainly happens in china. All over the world this fake material stuff is transported the people who own these industries make so much money they don’t know what to do with it. Many come to cities such as Las Vegas, Nevada and buy many houses. In the video one person built a whole new complex of condos! If you go to the black market in china they don’t have the replica “fake products” out on display they actually have to take you to the ware house where there are many fakes from Chanel, LV, Prada, and Coach. If you do make them take you to the ware house they take you around all over, and in circles so you don’t remember where you are going, so you cannot go get the police telling them the location. Every day many governments and police try to work together to catch these criminals the problem is that they are no fast enough for the black market. When products are shipped from different countries it is easy to stuff a purse with drugs such a cocaine or heroin. The black market claims that they can offer many jobs for the less fortunate but in my opinion is that they just make those people’s lives worse by exposing them to more lying and scamming. The most interesting that I also learned is to never put your credit card on a movie website that lets you watch black market movies because your credit card will have charges that you didn’t make very quickly. In South America they also make a lot of fake medicine by making it the same color, without having the same ingredients or chemicals the big problem with this is that if you take this “medicine “ your illness will not go away it will just get worse, and you might even die. Now that I see something that is produced by the black market I think about the humans that may have died in the process of the product being produced, maybe you were trying to the right thing, and you were at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Week 5 EOC; Patten Troll

Today I learned about "patent trolls" by reading a very interesting article. Many patent lawyers have realized that many stores are not careful with patent numbers, by then being careless it is a big opportunity for them to catch them offering/ selling a product with an expired patent number. For example Mr. Stauffer noticed something very interesting about the bow ties on display at Brooks Brothers: they were labeled with old patent numbers. He sued Brooks Brother in court by claiming that they had broken the law by marking the bow ties with patents that had expired in the 1950’s.  After this story many people started to try and find expire patent numbers in all stores so they could sue the big companies. Everything in the industry must have a patent number that is current from the toothpaste packages to even panty liners for women must have current patent numbers! Patents have a life span of 17 to 20 years to keep them valid all companies must pay all fees every four years. Once it is expired they must remove the patent number for the product and pay for a new one. I think that patent trolls have to do a lot of work to catch a company on a mistake like this. But you never know what could happen if you find one little product that was left on the shelf with an expired patent number you have yourself a case that you could take to court. You can also be a patent troll for online stores! Which I believe would be way easier and faster just looking through all the products online an research the patent number to make sure it is valid and current, with all fees being paid every four years. I look up to the people that are patent trolls all that research and the court paper work. I think it is awesome when they do win a case it is easy money with some hard work.

WEEK4 BOC DEATH RACE JEOPARDY

Today in class we played jeopardy throughout the class we played about 4 games switching teams, having different teammates. The game was very intense, even though I was having so much fun working with everyone I did learn many more vocabulary words through the different questions in the game. Each time a team won we would get a sticky note as points! At first we started out with 2 teams of 6 people. After a few games it came down to 4 teams of 3! I've noticed that everyone was smiling and having fun while learning. I have played jeopardy before in school but never like this! I enjoyed making my own game too coming up with clever questions for the vocabulary words to trick my classmates. Reading through my book also made me learn more! At the end of the game we used the 4 teams 3 people in each team all of us put down as many sticky notes as we earned, we did not know why we were doing this! When the game started all of us had to write something down on the board if not we actually got deducted that money! Every team my team mates and I did not know an answer we would just guess it worked every time! This was called the death race. We risked all of our money for the final jeopardy question we were playing confidentially but we still lost and only got 4 extra points on our exam! The team that won got over 25 extra points on their exam! It was so not fair to me! Some might not even study as much as I will! I did learn a lot through jeopardy I hope to do it again soon, even if it’s not in this class!

WEEK 3 EOC Stolen Valor Act

The stolen valor act is when normal people who are not veterans pretend or lie to say that they are in the military, air force, marine when they have never been! I completely think this is wrong to lie about something like this because the people that have been through the training and have actually been to war, through the pain they deserve all the attention, and awards. But since we have our freedom of speech so we are pretty much allowed to lie about who we are or who we are not, what valors we have earned and which ones we have not. People also used to sell a product to tell everyone it’s the best out there, they never have to prove it, if they do get in trouble they just say we never did anything bad we just lied and use the 1st amendment act to protect them from getting in big trouble with the courts! Many figure this out using to their advantage making millions of dollars of a product. Once in trouble all they have to do is pretty much apologize take it off the market, being allowed to keep their money. Some say by using the 1st amendment you are allowed to lie to make money of a product or invention that is false. I would definitely be very upset if I actually was part of the military, protected my country and someone else was pretending and lying saying they have done everything I have done but they never did or will. People waste millions of dollars of products each year, many believe liars about doing all these valors act they claim but none of it is true... welcome to America!

WEEK 2 EOC "Erin Brockovich"

Between 1952 and 1966 in San Francisco California company water PG&E had put corrosion in cooling water letting more than a few families use the water. The families started getting super sick with brain tumors, cancer, and it was messing up their spines. A little girl who wanted to be a swimmer couldn’t reach her dream anymore because her spine was too weak now for her to reach her dream. Ms. Brockovic started working for a small attorney firm, she found out about this case. Within 18 months she did a lot of research; gather much information for the case. The case was settled in 1966 for 333 million dollars it was the largest settlement made in history. The law firm received 133.6 million dollars Ms. Brockovich received 2 million dollars for her efforts! I think it was great that she made that much effort not for the money but to help out all the families. Being a single mother of 3 she understood the pain that they were going through. The whole time she was broke and barely had any money. She was very smart but no one saw that in her except Ed Masry who the lawyer for the case was. They had a very weird relationship, they would argue a lot, but she pushed him to the limit to do everything in his power to win the case. She was a smart allelic when it came to the workers that were sent from the PG&E water company. Her personality was very strong which was perfect for this case she was fighting against a multimillion company, who would send in different workers offering money to the families. Ms. Brockovich felt that they did not have enough money to pay back the pain that had been going through or their body parts. I really enjoyed learning about Ms. Brockovich she was a very strong independent woman fighting for what she thought was the right thing to do. She is one of my new inspirations!

WEEK 1 BOC VOICE

Hello welcome to my blog! I'm Andrea I am a Fashion Major at the Art Institute of Las Vegas, Nevada. I was born in Guatemala I came here when I was 8 years old. I'm bilingual Spanish is my first language English is my second. In my world I only think, speak and vision positive things. I am very charismatic, industrious person. Many say I am an impulse person when it comes to all my decisions, but I only see it as a gift. I am introverted at times, talkative it just depends what personality I'm feeling that day. My family and friends are my number 1 fans, as I am their number 1 fan. I must say I only surround myself with people who are going places. I may be young but I have a million and 1 things going on in my life. When it comes to my work ethic, I am professional; punctual I like my work to be noticed in a positive way. I currently work at a Jewelry Store inside Las Vegas McCarran Airport. I am in the process of getting licensed as a financial adviser. I never have any free time if I'm not at work or school I am modeling for a music video, promotions, trade-shows. I am also a spokes model for a company body balance, I also design our uniforms for every event we do whether it’s here in town or for Hollywood! The reason why I decided to go to school was because I was tired of being a normal person with a basic job, working for a person that was taking my time away not paying me enough money when I could be doing greater things for myself. I do not like working a job because it always takes me away from modeling, family events, someone telling me what to do how to do it what goal to reach for the business! I did not think twice about signing up to school I knew Fashion design & retail management was perfect for me! It goes along with my personality, with my favorite things to do, my part time modeling events! I know in school they always teach us to go to college then find a good job pretty much working for someone else. Then I thought well the longer I think about my future the shorter it will be. You see I see the bigger picture I want to make an impact, I want to be able to help the helpless with my success change people's life inspire them to step out the system that has been going around for many years. I been around sewing machines all my life, I love to sew and put new things together. In the near future I plan to own my very own boutique with my own designs, a personal fashion designer sewing personal pieces. I will make a name for myself. My target market is young mature successful entrepreneur ladies who like to dress to impress, turn head when they walk by. I do have high hopes & many unbelievable dreams, but our minds can be trained to do anything, nothing's impossible, everything is possible!