Do Trademark Infringement Lawsuits Affect Brand Value: A Stock Market Perspective

Many firms find that they can benefit from copying orotherwise misusing the trademarks of their competitors. Firmsthat have maintained a positive brand image are likely to fightany dilution or eventual loss of their trademark by using lawsuitsagainst offending firms. These lawsuits help to staunch any lossesto the brand and leave the potential for the benefits from thetrademark to flow back to the firm. These benefits will be temperedby legal costs, potential infringement by other firms in futureand the need to file lawsuits in response. In contrast, firmsthat have infringed on a trademark are likely to lose if theowner of the trademark challenges them in court. This study relatesthe stock returns of firms to the filing of lawsuits to defendtrademarks. We study the impact of both the filing of the lawsuitand the eventual verdict of the court on the stock market valueof defendant and plaintiff firms. The protection of a trademarkby a plaintiff using a lawsuit resulted in a negative returnto the shareholders of the defendant firm that infringed on thetrademark. The returns to the plaintiff firms were mixed andof marginal magnitude due to offsetting factors although largefirms experienced positive returns.     

Intensity-based framework and penalty formulation of optimal stopping problems

Financial derivatives commonly contain premature termination clauses, which are embedded rights held by the holder or writer. Well known examples of these stopping rights include the early exercise right in American options, the callable right in callable securities and the prepayment right in mortgage loans. In this paper, we show how to model the mortgagor's prepayment in mortgage loans and the issuer's call in the American warrant as an event risk using the intensity based approach, where the propensity of prepayment or calling is modeled by the intensity of a Poisson process. We illustrate that the corresponding pricing formulation resembles the penalty approximation approach commonly used in the solution of the linear complementarity formulation of an optimal stopping problem. We obtain several theoretical results on the prepayment strategies of mortgage loans and calling policies of American warrants. We also propose robust second order accurate numerical schemes for solving the penalty formulation of an optimal stopping problem.     

基于灰色关联分析法的铁路物流服务方案评价

选择合理的铁路物流服务方案对优化物流资源配置、提高铁路物流服务质量具有重要意义。针对铁路物流服务方案数量多、部分方案服务质量不高等问题,结合评价指标体系构建原则,选择经济性能、技术性能、服务水平和社会服务4个方面的评价指标,建立铁路物流服务方案评价指标体系,提出基于灰色关联分析法的铁路物流服务方案评价方法,并通过案例分析阐述该评价方法的可行性。评价结果表明,灰色关联分析法具有有效性和合理性,能够为铁路物流服务方案评价问题提供客观的科学依据。     

An analysis of the behavior of mature black-owned commercial banks

Accounting and statistical techniques are used to compare the behavior of a sample of mature black-owned banks with that of a matched set of nonminority-owned banks. The black banks are generally less profitable. The major reasons for this lower profitability include more liquid asset portfolios at the black banks, higher operating costs on liabilities, and higher rates of loan loss. Higher loan loss rates appear to be the single most important factor, with losses on real estate and possibly commercial and industrial loans probably being the most serious continuing sources of loan losses.     

Management Education Reforms in the Baltic States

No abstract available for this article.