Comprehensive Torts, Product Liability, and Intellectual Property Study Guide

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering tort law principles, intentional torts, negligence, strict liability, product defect doctrines, intellectual property rights, and key landmark case law.

Tort

A civil wrong not arising from a breach of contract; a breach of a legal duty that proximately causes harm or injury to another.

Tortfeasor

The person or entity committing a wrongful act.

Plaintiff

The injured party seeking compensation in a civil tort action.

Compensatory Damages

Monetary awards designed to make the victim whole for actual monetary or non-monetary losses.

Special Damages

A category of compensatory damages awarded for quantifiable monetary losses, such as medical bills, hospital expenses, lost wages and benefits, and property repair costs.

General Damages

A category of compensatory damages awarded to individuals (not corporations) for non-monetary harm, such as physical pain and suffering, emotional distress, mental anguish, disfigurement, loss of consortium, and harm to reputation.

Punitive Damages

Monetary damages designed to punish the tortfeasor and deter future egregiously wrongful conduct when actions are extreme, outrageous, or reckless, subject to constitutional Due Process limits.

Intent

A legal condition requiring that the tortfeasor intended the consequences of their act or knew with substantial certainty that specific consequences would result.

Transferred Intent

A legal doctrine providing that if an actor intends to harm Person A but unintentionally harms Person B, the intent shifts to Person B, allowing recovery.

Assault

An intentional, unexcused threat of immediate harmful or offensive contact (words or acts) that creates a reasonably believable threat, where physical contact is not required.

Battery

An unexcused, intentional harmful or offensive physical contact, representing the completion of an assault, judged by a reasonable person standard.

False Imprisonment

The intentional confinement or restraint of another person's activities without justification, accomplished via physical barriers, physical force, or threats of force without requiring physical harm.

Shopkeeper's Privilege

An affirmative defense allowing a merchant to detain a suspected shoplifter if the detention is conducted in a reasonable manner, with reasonable force, and for a reasonable length of time.

Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED)

An intentional tort consisting of an extreme and outrageous act exceeding all bounds of decency accepted by society, resulting in severe emotional distress to another.

Defamation

A false statement of fact published to a third party that harms the plaintiff's reputation.

Slander

Oral defamation requiring proof of special economic damages unless it constitutes slander per se.

Libel

Written or permanent defamation in which general damages are presumed without proving economic loss.

Slander Per Se

Oral defamatory statements actionable without proof of special damages, including false claims that someone has a loathsome disease, committed professional improprieties, committed a serious crime, or is unchaste.

Actual Malice

The legal standard established under New York Times v. Sullivan requiring a public figure to prove by clear and convincing evidence that a statement was made with knowledge of its falsity or with reckless disregard for its truth.

Absolute Privilege

A complete defense to defamation that shields statements made in judicial or legislative proceedings.

Qualified Privilege

A defense to defamation applying to good-faith statements made to those with a legitimate interest, such as written internal employment evaluations.

Intrusion into Seclusion

An invasion of privacy involving intruding upon the solitude, seclusion, or private affairs of an individual in a manner highly offensive to a reasonable person.

False Light

An invasion of privacy tort involving publishing or attributing highly offensive false impressions, ideas, or opinions to a person that they do not hold, placing them in a false light before the public.

Public Disclosure of Private Facts

Publicly disclosing deeply private, non-public information about a private citizen where the disclosure would be highly offensive to a reasonable person and is not of legitimate public concern.

Appropriation

The unauthorized use of another person's name, likeness, picture, or other identifiable characteristics for commercial purposes without consent.

Fraudulent Misrepresentation (Fraud)

A tort requiring a misrepresentation of material fact with knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard, intent to induce reliance, justifiable reliance, actual damages, and a causal connection.

Negligent Misrepresentation

A tort occurring when a statement or omission is made without a reasonable basis for believing its truthfulness, where an intent to deceive is not required.

Malicious Prosecution

An abusive litigation tort consisting of initiating a legal action with malice and without legal cause that terminates in dismissal or loss for the initiator.

Abuse of Process

Using legal process improperly for unintended purposes (e.g., using a legal subpoena to harass a competitor), which does not require a showing of malice.

Wrongful Interference with a Contractual Relationship

A business tort requiring a valid, enforceable contract between two parties, a third party's knowledge of the contract, and the third party's intentional inducement of a breach.

Wrongful Interference with a Business Relationship

A tort prohibiting predatory methods used to intentionally harm an established business relationship or gain prospective economic advantage, distinguishable from bona fide competitive behavior.

Trespass to Land

Entering onto, above, or below real property owned by another without permission, or causing objects or persons to remain there, regardless of whether actual harm occurs.

Trespass to Personal Property

The unlawful taking or harming of another's personal property (chattel) that diminishes its value, condition, or quality.

Conversion

The wrongful taking, using, or retaining possession of another's personal property, even if initial possession was consensual, for which mistaken beliefs of ownership are no defense.

Negligence

The failure to exercise the standard of care that a reasonable person would exercise in similar circumstances, requiring proof of duty, breach, causation, and damages.

Duty of Care

A legal obligation measured by the Reasonable Person Standard requiring individuals to avoid creating foreseeable risks of harm to others.

Malpractice

Professional negligence occurring when a licensed professional fails to meet the standard of care of a reasonable professional in their field.

Causation in Fact (Actual Cause)

An element of negligence evaluated via the 'But For' test, establishing that the injury would not have occurred without the defendant's act.

Proximate Cause (Legal Cause)

A legal limitation on negligence liability evaluated via the Foreseeability test (originating from Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co.).

Good Samaritan Statutes

Statutes shielding emergency responders or doctors volunteering at accident scenes from simple negligence liability.

Dram Shop Acts

State statutes imposing civil liability on tavern owners and commercial alcohol servers for injuries caused by patrons served past intoxication.

Assumption of Risk

An affirmative defense to negligence asserting that the plaintiff voluntarily entered into a situation with knowledge of the associated risks.

Superseding Cause

An unexpected intervening event that breaks the causal connection between the defendant's wrongful act and the resulting injury.

Contributory Negligence

A common law defense recognized in a minority of jurisdictions where any degree of plaintiff negligence completely bars recovery.

Comparative Negligence

A statutory defense reducing a plaintiff's recoverable damages proportionately based on their percentage of fault.

Strict Liability

Liability without fault imposed for abnormally dangerous activities, keeping wild animals, or keeping domestic animals with known dangerous tendencies.

Manufacturing Defect

A product defect occurring when a unit departs from its intended design specifications despite the manufacturer exercising all possible care.

Design Defect

A defect occurring when a product is unreasonably dangerous as designed even if manufactured correctly, evaluated via risk-utility or consumer-expectation tests.

Inadequate Warnings

A product liability defect occurring when a product lacks adequate instructions or fails to warn of foreseeable risks or misuses.

Statute of Repose

A statutory defense placing an absolute outer time limit on bringing product liability claims, regardless of when the injury was discovered.

Trademark

A distinctive mark, motto, or device identifying the commercial origin of goods or services, governed by the Lanham Act to prevent consumer confusion.

Patent

A government grant conferring exclusive rights to make, use, or sell a novel, useful, and non-obvious invention (durations: utility 20 years, design 15 years, plant 20 years).

Copyright

Statutory protection granted to original works of authorship fixed in a durable medium, lasting for the author's life plus 70 years (or 95/120 years for publishing houses).

Trade Secret

Confidential business processes, formulas, customer lists, or information providing a competitive edge, protected under common law, the UTSA, and the Economic Espionage Act.

Fair Use Doctrine

A statutory defense to copyright infringement evaluated by the purpose and character of the use, nature of the copyrighted work, amount taken, and effect on the market.

First Sale Doctrine

A copyright principle establishing that once a person purchases a copyrighted work, they have the legal right to sell or dispose of that specific copy.

Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell (1988)

The Supreme Court decision holding that public figures cannot recover for Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress caused by offensive parodies without proving actual malice.

Snyder v. Phelps (2011)

The Supreme Court decision establishing that the First Amendment protects peaceful picketing on matters of public concern at funeral sites from IIED liability.

New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964)

The landmark Supreme Court ruling establishing that public figures must prove actual malice by clear and convincing evidence to prevail on defamation claims.

Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co. (1928)

The landmark tort decision establishing that proximate cause in negligence requires that the harm to the plaintiff was reasonably foreseeable.

Bogenberger v. Pi Kappa Alpha Corporation, Inc. (2018)

A tort ruling establishing that national fraternity organizations and local chapters owe a duty of care to protect pledges against foreseeable harm from hazing rituals.

Taylor v. Baseball Club of Seattle, LP (2006)

A case applying the doctrine of primary assumption of risk to sports spectators who are injured by inherent risks such as errant baseballs during warm-ups.

Wilson Sporting Goods Co. v. Hickox (2013)

A product liability decision applying the consumer-expectation test to find an umpire mask design defective because it failed to perform as safely as expected.

Bruesewitz v. Wyeth, LLC (2011)

A Supreme Court ruling holding that the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act preempted state law strict product liability claims against vaccine manufacturers.

Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc. (2008)

A Supreme Court decision holding that pre-market approval by the FDA preempts state common law negligence and strict liability claims regarding medical devices.

Wyeth v. Levine (2009)

A Supreme Court case establishing that FDA approval of prescription drug labels does not automatically preempt state law failure-to-warn claims against drug manufacturers.