Case Study of Apple, Inc. for Business Law Students: How Apple's Business Model Controls Digital Content Through Legal and Technological Means

• Date: 01 January 2009
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-1722.2009.00064.x
• Published date: 01 January 2009
• Author: Margo E.K. Reder

Case Study of Apple, Inc. for

Business Law Students: How Apple’s

Business Model Controls Digital

Content Through Legal and

Technological Means

Margo E.K. Reder

n

I. INTRODUCTION

This article describes a six-week long exercise that incorporates a dynamic

learning approach into an e-commerce or Internet technology business

law elective course; the exercise pursues an entrepreneurial approach to

the use of an appropriate business model by emphasizing the interaction

between technology, business, and law.

1

‘‘Students learn best when they are

actively involved in and responsible for their own learning.’’

2

Because of

student familiarity with technology, Apple, Inc., and Apple products pro-

vide the backdrop for this coursework. This active learning exercise yields

engaged students, who gain the ability to address these issues outside of

the classroom. This exercise is meant to create a forum for interactive

learning along with a context for this experience. ‘‘At a basic level, under-

graduate law courses inform students about key legal concepts and foun-

dation principles. Students absorb legal concepts better when faculty

provide an appealing vehicle for the review of complex legal materials.’’

3

r2009, Copyright the Author

Journal compilation rAcademy of Legal Studies in Business 2009

185

Journal of Legal Studies Education

Volume 26, Issue 1, 185–209, Winter/Spring 2009

n

Lecturer in Law, & Research Associate, Carroll School of Management, Boston College.

1

For this course at Boston College, we use the text, GERALD R. FERRERA ET AL., CYBERLAW:TEXT

AND CASES (2004).

2

See Lucille M. Ponte, The Case of the Unhappy Sports Fan: Embracing Student-Centered Learning

and Promoting Upper-Level Cognitive Skills Through an Online Dispute Resolution Simulation,23J.

LEGAL STUD.EDUC. 169, 169–70 (2006).

3

See id. at 173.

With this in mind, students first study business models of current

businesses in the technology sector. Students consider their products and

services and future plans all as components of any business models in an

attempt to analyze what works–companies producing revenue for products

or services in high demand–and why it works–typically because these com-

panies create superior, innovative products or services that customers will

choose over those of competitors, as well as pay for those products or ser-

vices. Even if the businesses’ products or services are given away free to

customers, as are Google search queries, companies still produce revenue

from, in this example, selling online display ads to third parties. By fo-

cusing on technology as a means of supporting business goals, students

quickly discover that the current legal environment lags behind rapid de-

velopments in business. Advances in technology outpace legal develop-

ments, and legal responses to the technology business environment.

Prior to beginning the Apple case study,students first study models of

start-up businesses and then study legal issues relevant to the start-up

phase. While studying start-up businesses, students focus on the logistics of

starting a business and the products and services of the business. Students

then address legal topics relevant to a business’s start-up phase, including

trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, patents, and contracts. This allows

students to apply their knowledge to a familiar technology, iPods and the

iTunes Music Store, while worki ng through the Apple, Inc. case study.

Students work in groups, drawing on their knowledge of legal concepts

and business strategies studied earlier in the course; through the case

study, students achieve an in-depth understanding of and context for an

understanding of how Apple exploits these legal concepts and business

strategies and then describe how they contribute to Apple’s success. This

course concludes with an inventory of the technology Apple deploys and

how it protects this technology through enforcement of intellectual prop-

erty rights.

This course material has been developed and Apple was selected as a

subject for a case study because the students already are conversant with

this technology and the company. This familiarity frees students to con-

centrate on the legal significance of the company’s business and technology

strategies. The concepts are presented in ways that resonate with students’

experiences; this provides a framework for the materials and promotes

student insight and understanding beyond mere abstract academic learn-

ing. Specifically, students learn to recognize how each of these legal con-

cepts and business strategies contributes to an aspect of the company’s

186 Vol. 26 / The Journal of Legal Studies Education