Business Law & Social Responsibility: Torts, Strict Liability, Intellectual Property, and Criminal Law

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering intentional torts, negligence, strict products liability, intellectual property, and criminal law based on course lectures and study guides.

Tort

A civil wrong that causes injury to another person or their property, categorized into intentional torts, negligence, and strict liability.

Tortfeasor

The person or entity who commits a tort.

Intent (in Tort Law)

A state of mind where the defendant acts with the purpose of causing a particular consequence, or knows with substantial certainty that the consequence will occur; intent to cause actual injury is not required.

Transferred Intent

A legal principle under which intent transfers when the defendant intends an intentional tort against one person but instead commits the tort against another person.

Assault

An intentional act that causes another person to reasonably apprehend an imminent harmful or offensive contact, without requiring physical contact.

Battery

Intentional, nonconsensual harmful or offensive physical contact involving any part of a person's body or anything attached to it, judged by a reasonable person's sense of dignity.

False Imprisonment

The unlawful restriction of a person's freedom of movement within a bounded area without consent or legal justification, where confinement is complete and the plaintiff is aware of it or suffers harm.

Shopkeeper's Privilege

A defense against false imprisonment allowing merchants to detain suspected shoplifters if there are reasonable grounds for suspicion, the detention is conducted in a reasonable manner, and it lasts for a reasonable amount of time.

Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED)

An intentional tort requiring extreme and outrageous conduct beyond all bounds of decency, undertaken intentionally or recklessly, that causes severe emotional distress.

Defamation

A false statement of alleged fact about the plaintiff, communicated to a third party, that harms the plaintiff's reputation.

Slander

Oral or spoken defamation, which generally requires proof of special damages (actual economic loss) before recovering for reputational harm.

Libel

Written or recorded defamation, where reputational harm may be presumed and both special damages and general damages may be recovered.

Slander Per Se

Four specific categories of oral statements where reputational harm is presumed without proof of economic loss: false accusations of committing a serious crime, having a serious communicable disease, engaging in serious sexual misconduct, or exhibiting professional incompetence.

Actual Malice

A heightened legal standard required for public officials and public figures to recover for defamation, requiring proof that the false statement was made with knowledge of its falsity or with reckless disregard for the truth.

Intrusion into Seclusion

An invasion of privacy involving an intentional intrusion into a person's private physical space, solitude, or private affairs.

False Light

An invasion of privacy involving the publication of information that creates a misleading and highly offensive impression about a person.

Public Disclosure of Private Facts

An invasion of privacy that occurs when true, private, and non-newsworthy information about an individual is publicized without consent.

Appropriation of Identity

An invasion of privacy consisting of the unauthorized commercial use of a person's name or likeness for commercial gain.

Fraudulent Misrepresentation

A tort requiring a false representation of material fact made with knowledge of falsity and intent to deceive, which induces justifiable reliance and causes damages; puffery does not qualify.

Wrongful Interference with a Contractual Relationship

A business tort where a defendant, knowing of a valid and enforceable contract between parties, intentionally and unjustifiably induces one party to breach it, causing damages.

Wrongful Interference with a Business Relationship

A business tort where a defendant, knowing of an existing business relationship that provides an identifiable economic benefit, intentionally and unjustifiably interferes with that relationship to cause economic harm.

Slander of Quality (Trade Libel)

The publication of false statements about the quality or characteristics of another's products or services that causes economic harm to the business.

Slander of Title

The publication of a false statement that casts doubt on a business's or individual's ownership or legal rights in property, resulting in economic harm.

Trespass to Personal Property (Trespass to Chattels)

Intentional interference with a plaintiff's lawful possession or use of personal property without permission, resulting in deprivation of use, damage, or condition impairment.

Conversion

The intentional exercise of dominion or control over another's personal property that so seriously or substantially interferes with the owner's right of possession that full value compensation is warranted.

Trespass to Land

Intentionally entering, remaining on, or causing an object or third party to enter someone's land without permission or legal justification, actionable by whoever holds lawful possession.

Compensatory Damages

Monetary damages designed to compensate a plaintiff for their losses, categorized into special damages (quantifiable monetary losses) and general damages (non-monetary losses such as pain and suffering).

Punitive Damages

Monetary damages awarded above compensatory damages to punish the defendant for egregious conduct and deter future tortious acts.

Negligence

An unintentional tort based on the failure to exercise reasonable care under the circumstances, judged against what a reasonably prudent person would do.

Invitee

A customer or business visitor to whom a landowner owes a duty to exercise reasonable care to keep the premises reasonably safe and warn of dangerous conditions.

Licensee

A social guest to whom a landowner owes a duty to warn of known, hidden dangers that are not obvious.

Attractive Nuisance Doctrine

A legal doctrine creating an exception to the general rule that landowners owe no duty to trespassers, imposing liability when child trespassers are injured by hazardous conditions likely to attract them.

Malpractice

Professional negligence wherein a professional is held to the standard of care of a reasonably competent member of the same profession, reflecting specialized training, skill, and knowledge.

Actual Cause (Cause in Fact)

The factual causation test asking whether the plaintiff's injury would have occurred 'but for' the defendant's conduct.

Proximate Cause (Legal Cause)

The legal limit of causation determining whether an injury was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the defendant's conduct, cutting off liability for remote harms.

Assumption of Risk

An affirmative defense establishing that the plaintiff knowingly and voluntarily encountered a specific, understood danger, thereby limiting or barring recovery.

Contributory Negligence

A traditional common law rule followed in only a small number of jurisdictions holding that any fault on the plaintiff's part completely bars recovery.

Comparative Negligence

A defense reducing a plaintiff's recovery by their percentage of fault, applied either as pure comparative negligence or under the 50% rule where fault above 50% bars all recovery.

Strict Liability

Tortious liability imposed on a defendant without requiring the plaintiff to prove fault, carelessness, or intent, applying to abnormally dangerous activities, wild animals, and defective products.

Abnormally Dangerous Activity

An activity that creates a significant risk of serious harm that cannot be eliminated through the exercise of reasonable care and is not commonly performed in the area.

Strict Products Liability

A doctrine holding commercial sellers liable for physical harm or property damage caused by a product sold in a defective condition that is unreasonably dangerous, without requiring proof of negligence.

Manufacturing Defect

A product defect occurring when a product departs from its intended design during production or assembly, making it more dangerous than intended.

Design Defect

A defect where a product is manufactured precisely as intended, but the design itself renders the entire line of products unreasonably dangerous.

Risk-Utility Test

A test for design defects evaluating whether the foreseeable risks of harm posed by a product outweigh its utility and whether a safer, economically feasible alternative design was available.

Consumer Expectation Test

A test for product design defect determining whether a product is more dangerous than an ordinary consumer would reasonably expect when using it as intended.

Failure to Warn Defect

A product defect arising when a manufacturer fails to provide clear, prominent, and specific warnings or instructions for non-obvious risks that the manufacturer knew or should have known about.

Statute of Repose

An absolute statutory deadline barring products liability claims after a set number of years, where the clock begins running on the date the product was first manufactured or sold, regardless of when injury occurred.

Trademark

A distinctive word, phrase, symbol, or design that identifies and distinguishes the commercial source of goods or services under the Lanham Act.

Trade Dress

The overall look, feel, image, and packaging of a product or service that identifies its commercial source to consumers, such as a distinctive bottle shape or branded packaging.

Secondary Meaning

A condition occurring when consumers come to associate a descriptive trademark term or feature directly with a specific single commercial source, qualifying it for trademark protection.

Trademark Infringement

The unauthorized use in commerce of an identical or similar mark that creates a likelihood of consumer confusion regarding the source, affiliation, or sponsorship of the goods or services.

Trademark Dilution

The unauthorized commercial use of a famous, distinctive mark that weakens its uniqueness through blurring or harms its reputation through tarnishment, without requiring consumer confusion.

Utility Patent

A federal grant giving an inventor exclusive rights to exclude others from making, using, selling, or importing an invention that is new, useful, and nonobvious for a duration of 20 years from the nonprovisional filing date.

First-Inventor-to-File Rule

The federal rule awarding patent rights to the first inventor to file a patent application rather than the first person who conceived the invention.

Copyright

A federal intellectual property right protecting original creative works of authorship fixed in a physical or digital medium of expression, protecting the expression rather than the underlying idea.

Work Made for Hire

A copyrighted work created by an employee or commissioned party whose protection lasts for 95 years from first publication or 120 years from creation, whichever expires first.

Fair Use

A statutory limitation permitting unauthorized use of copyrighted works for purposes like criticism, comment, teaching, or research, evaluated across four factors: purpose, nature of work, amount used, and market effect.

First Sale Doctrine

A copyright doctrine allowing the lawful owner of a particular lawfully made copy to resell, lend, or give away that copy without the copyright owner's permission.

Trade Secret

Valuable confidential business information or processes that derive economic value from not being generally known, protected indefinitely as long as the owner takes reasonable measures to maintain secrecy.

Actus Reus

The prohibited physical act or unlawful conduct that constitutes the external, physical element of a crime.

Mens Rea

The wrongful mental state or guilty intent that must accompany the criminal act to establish criminal guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Felony

A serious crime generally punishable by death or imprisonment in a penitentiary for more than one year.

Misdemeanor

A criminal offense less severe than a felony, punishable by up to one year in jail, a fine, or both.

Robbery

The unlawful taking of personal property of value directly from another person through the use of force or the threat of force.

Burglary

At common law, the breaking and entering of a dwelling at night with intent to commit a felony inside; modern statutes extend to unauthorized entry into commercial buildings during the day.

Larceny

The unlawful taking and carrying away of someone's personal property without consent, accompanied by the intent to permanently deprive the owner of it.

Forgery

The false making or material altering of a written document of legal significance with the intent to defraud.

Bribery

Offering, giving, soliciting, or receiving something of value with the intent to improperly influence another person's actions or official decisions.

Embezzlement

The fraudulent conversion or misappropriation of money or property by a person who was originally lawfully entrusted with its possession or control.

Exclusionary Rule

A Fourth Amendment evidentiary rule mandating that evidence obtained through an illegal, unreasonable search or seizure must be excluded from criminal proceedings.

Fruit of the Poisonous Tree

An extension of the exclusionary rule holding that indirect evidence subsequently discovered as a result of an initial illegal search or seizure is also tainted and inadmissible.