#18 - Concept Reference, Parallel

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[ameliakate]

I initially selected B for this question. My original thought processes was that patent law protects recipes similar to copyright law protecting jokes. When evaluating answer choice D, I realized the author of passage B notes, "legal protections are potentially avaliable via trade secrecy laws."

Is D correct because chefs opt not to use trade secrecy laws, depending on social norms instead, similar to comedians opting not to use copyright law? As in, both have areas of formal law avaliable, but both choose the extralegal option?

[Brook Miscoski]

Amelia,

Your thoughts about the explanation are correct. The way to get the right answer to this question is to play a matching game--Passage A says that the relevant body of law for comedians is copyright law, but they don't use it, opting for norms; Passage B says that the relevant body of law for chefs is trade secret protection, but they don't use it, opting for norms. Ergo (D). There is a negative reason for not choosing (B), which is that the passage says that the norms that chefs use are analogous to patent law, which isn't the same as saying that protections are available via patent law (almost always, they aren't, which Passage B acknowledges in line 43). When doing Parallel questions, try to capture as much of the relationship as possible, and that will get you to (D) and save you from (B).

[dimi.wassef@yahoo.com]

In this question, I thought each of the types of law mentioned in Passage B could be bracketed into the previously mentioned Intellectual property law. Can someone explain that a bit more for my understanding?

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi Dimi,

In this case, the answer is unlikely to be intellectual property in general, because that's too broad a term for the relationship here. The passages both talk about specific types of intellectual property protection, so we aren't going to be specific enough by selecting answer choice (A).

When we look at how Passage A talks about the relationship between comedians and copyright law, we see that copyright law formally protects jokes, but isn't frequently used as an enforcement mechanism by comedians. Similarly, for chefs, trade secret law would protect their recipies, but it isn't typically used by chefs as an official legal mechanism.

For parallel reasoning questions in reading comp, I highly recommend going back to the passage(s) to see exactly how the phrase or idea is used in the passage.

Hope that helps!


Hope that helps!

[timmer]

Amelia,

Your thoughts about the explanation are correct. The way to get the right answer to this question is to play a matching game--Passage A says that the relevant body of law for comedians is copyright law, but they don't use it, opting for norms; Passage B says that the relevant body of law for chefs is trade secret protection, but they don't use it, opting for norms. Ergo (D). There is a negative reason for not choosing (B), which is that the passage says that the norms that chefs use are analogous to patent law, which isn't the same as saying that protections are available via patent law (almost always, they aren't, which Passage B acknowledges in line 43). When doing Parallel questions, try to capture as much of the relationship as possible, and that will get you to (D) and save you from (B).

Hi Brook, I doubt you are still here, I will think deeply on your words. However, to advocate for B, there is only one law that is referenced in A, copywrite law and parallel to A, B says the best law would be patent law. Patent law is not enforceable for recopies which does create a measure difference in the answer choices, it's still clearly the "Best/most appropriate law" if it were to work.

I understand trade secrecy and copy write laws COULD be enforced but are not, but to me this seems like a more tenuous relationship than the initial relationship which is, under what law SHOULD the jokes and recipes be protected.

[Jonathan Evans]

Hi, Timmer,

Good questions!

You are correct that Passage A references copyright law as the most appropriate system for comedians to use but also that they rarely use these laws.

However, Passage B states that in the first paragraph that "[r]ecipes are rarely patentable" and that copyright law also does not apply. It then states that legal remedies would be possible through trade secret laws but that chefs rarely use these laws.

Therefore, as Brook writes, there is an analogous relationship between (1) comedians and copyright law and (2) chefs and trade secret laws.

Further, it is important to note that neither passage discusses what laws "should" be enforced. Instead both passages discuss which laws "could" be enforced but are not.

I hope this helps!

[Overthinker99]

I’m still a bit confused as to why answer choice A "intellectual property" is not correct.

I know the passage states chefs “seldom use” trade secrecy laws, which parallels comedians use of copyright. However, the broader message of Intellectual property seems to be whether the relevant law would be "effective.".

The end of passage A P1 reads “In the end, copyright law simply does not provide comedians with a cost-effective way of protecting their comedic material.”

P1 of Passage B reads “At the same time, recipes are not a form of innovation that is effectively covered by current intellectual property laws.”

Again, I understand that both copyright and trade secrecy are “seldom used.”

I just don't get why A is not correct either. The parallel there is clear: Passage B is “sorry, intellectual property laws are not good for protecting chefs” in the same way that passage A is “sorry, copyright law is no good for comedians.”

[Dana D]

Hey Overthinker,

Both passages are really about intellectual property - with jokes in Passage A and with recipes in Passage B. However in passage A, the author discusses copyright law as the most applicable form of legal protection, while in passage B trade secrecy law is identified as the most applicable, which is why answer choice (D) is correct. Remember, we are looking for an analogy here, and so while intellectual property is discussed in both passages, it is not the law the author identifies as the most applicable in either.