Intellectual Property

I arose that morning at approximately 6 A.M. I then departed from my room, and headed upstairs to prepare my morning coffee. After having a few cups, I began to bone up on the laws governing U.S. Intellectual property, the World Trade Organizations "suggested" laws on intellectual property, and Mexico's laws regarding intellectual property, not to mention I was trying to accomplish this in four hours time. After reading several cases, as well as reading the back bone of the laws established by the various governing bodies, I realized one important thing, the World Trade Organization effects nothing. So having learned this I stuck mainly to the difference between what U.S. law dictated and what Mexican law dictated, and moved forward to the differences on paper as opposed to practice. After a grueling study session I then attempted to communicate to my classmates what exactly Intellectual property was in terms of definitions, and what the differences were throughout the governing bodies. We then as a class took lunch with a man I like to affectionately call "Nacho", a predominant lawyer in the region who works with foreign companies who wish to do business in Mexico. Through talking to him it became quite evident that in Mexico it was near impossible to get something pushed through the government that since Mexico was governed by civil law, and not common law trying to accomplish what we do in America would be nearly impossible. The reason is that copyright and patent infringements where there, but impossible to correct and not worth corporations time. That things were based strictly on what was written in the books, and there was no room for interpretation of anything, even if the situation of the groups involved should affect the outcome. After lunch that day, the class went on a scavenger hunt where we took pictures of Intellectual property violations throughout the city of Merida, having completed the assignment given by professor Fiser we went to lunch. Oh but only if it had been as easy as going to eat lunch. The class through professor Fiser and a student by the name of Murphy had heard great things of a place they called the "hippster cafe", so we partook in a journey searching for the place in order to enjoy its fine facilities. However, it was unknown to the other three that it was not going to be as simple as walking to the cafe, something I now consider to be a mythical place. So after walking all over Merida, and multiple phones calls to professor Fiser we give up on finding the cafe, and head to a place professor Fiser recommends called La Parrilla. Well after another fairly long walk, and a conversation with a restaurant owner trying to convince us to eat at a place called La Parrada, we give up on finding La Parrilla and plop down at some place whose name escapes me, later to find out professor Fiser was talking about La Parrada. The rest of the day we spent imbibing alcoholic beverages of our choice, because after all it was New Years Eve. The night was a tale of a boy and a women. A tale of a man’s coming of age. The young man started his evening out at a place called Boston's, a family oriented chain restaurant. After drinking several liters of beer with his classmates and playing bar games, he receives a tip from a bartender to go to a club called Tequila. Him and his classmates had only been at the club for a short while when a bartender approached him and asked him to go talk to a lady. The lady was 29, but did not look a day over 22, she had dark black hair, rich olive skin, and the body of an eighteen year old. Unfortunately she spoke very little English, and the young man spoke no Spanish, but for some reason that night it did not matter. They danced with there bodies pressed hard against each other moving in sync to the music of the club, knowing exactly what each other was thinking, but not knowing how to voice it. It was not too long before their eyes met one song, and there bodies reacted in one of the most beautiful things God enabled people to do, moving to the beat as his hands moved over her, and her hands moved over him. Then there lips touched, and what happened after that you can all imagine.