IPA IP 2020 Question 2

Topic: Legal Affairs

A question IPA Japan published in 令和2年度 10月 ITパスポート試験 公開問題 問2, translated into English. ITPEC is based on the same exams.

Companies are required to practice so-called compliance, conducting their activities in accordance with basic rules such as social norms, not to mention complying with laws and regulations, in order to live up to the trust of society. Among A through D, which of the following lists all and only the items that must be considered as compliance?

AObservance of traffic rulesBProhibition of entertaining public officialsCObservance of the company’s own rules of employmentDRespect for the intellectual property rights of others

Explanation

All four, A, B, C and D — compliance covers laws, a company's own rules and social norms alike, and each item falls under one of them.

Compliance is more than obeying the law: a company is expected to follow laws and regulations, its internal rules, and the ethics and norms society expects of it.

  • •A: traffic rules are law (in Japan the Road Traffic Act); employees driving on company business, and the company employing them, must observe them.
  • •B: entertaining public officials can amount to bribery, and public officials' ethics rules forbid them to accept entertainment from interested parties, so a company must not offer it.
  • •C: the rules of employment are the company's own rules, which compliance includes.
  • •D: intellectual property rights are protected by law (copyright, patent and trademark law); using another's work or invention without permission infringes them.

Answer (b)

Why not others:

  • •(a) — leaves out D, although infringing intellectual property breaks the law
  • •(c) — leaves out B, although entertaining officials risks bribery and breaches ethics rules
  • •(d) — leaves out A: traffic rules are laws too, even though they are not specific to business

Key rule: Compliance = laws and regulations + internal rules + social norms and ethics; anything a company or its employees must observe in doing business falls under it.

Legal Affairs · AI-written, may contain errors

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This question comes from the past questions IPA Japan publishes, translated into English by ITPEC Practice. ITPEC Practice is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with IPA or ITPEC. See the original paper (PDF) or Report an issue.