The Split on the Rogers v. Grimaldi Gridiron: An Analysis of Unauthorized Trademark Use in Artistic Mediums

Movies, television programs, and video games often exploit trademarks within their content. In particular, various media often attempt to use the logos of professional sports teams within artistic works. Courts have utilized different methods to balance the constitutional protections of the First Amendment with the property interests granted to the owner of a trademark. This Note discusses these methods, which include the alternative avenues approach, the likelihood of confusion test, and the right of publicity analysis. Ultimately, many courts utilize the framework presented in the seminal Rogers v. Grimaldi decision. This test analyzes the artistic relevance of the trademark’s use in the allegedly infringing work, while also protecting against explicitly misleading uses. Currently, federal circuits apply the Rogers test inconsistently, particularly in the Second, Sixth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits. This Note calls for a consistent method to harmonize First Amendment protections with trademark property interests through the Rogers test. This Note proposes that the threshold for First Amendment protections should remain relatively low for culturally relevant marks. This Note also argues that courts should analyze a First Amendment defense before engaging in a likelihood of confusion inquiry. This Note’s suggested approach would implement important safeguards to avoid lengthy trademark litigation, and thus, incentivize more artistic works by lowering transaction costs

Innovation and Finance: A Firm Level Analysis on Emerging Markets

Economic theory suggests that the more financially constrained a firm, the lower its ability to allocate resources for innovation. I test this theory using firm-level survey data that covers 29 Eastern European and Central Asian countries. The survey is conducted in 2002, 2005, and 2009, and covers nearly 12,000 enterprises. I construct two baseline probit models to test the impact of financial constraints on firms’ ability to innovate a new product or upgrade an existing product. Existing literature suggests that the more financially constrained a firm, the less likely they are to innovate. Previous studies have also noted the reverse causality that may exist between these two indicators. To account for this potential endogeneity problem, I run probit regressions using instrumental variable techniques. My empirical findings suggest that the greater the difficulty of access to finance, the less likely a firm is to innovate. Conversely, I find that the following measurements positively influence a firm’s innovational activity: whether or not the firm has is internationally recognized; the percent of employees with a university degree; the number of full time employees; percent of skilled workers; and, whether or not the firm’s supplies were imported directly

The Effects of Oil Price Shocks on the Stock Market Returns in Developed Economies

This paper examines the effects of oil price shocks on stock returns in OECD countries specifically Canada France Germany Japan United Kingdom United States and Norway. The empirical method used is the vector autoregression (VAR) model where a generalized impulse response function is applied to the results of the VAR to determine how stock prices respond to a shock in oil prices. The VAR model uses quarterly data for the period 1994 to 2016 for the following variables: interest rates real GDP real stock returns real UK Brent crude oil and APSP crude oil index. To take into account structural changes and different geo-political and economic events within the data the whole sample is divided into multiple sub-groups. The results suggest no relationship between oil price shocks and stock returns in developed countries when taking into account the full sample period. When the sample is segregated the results illustrate a negative relationship of oil price shocks to stock returns in the second sub-group (2003 Q1 - 2008 Q3) for France and a positive relationship in Canada in the third sub-group representing the time period of 2008 Q4 to 2012 Q2. The results suggest the necessity to segregate the data in order to take into account structural changes across time and present little evidence for fluctuations of oil prices influencing stock returns

The Split on the Rogers v. Grimaldi Gridiron: An Analysis of Unauthorized Trademark Use in Artistic Mediums

Movies, television programs, and video games often exploit trademarks within their content. In particular, various media often attempt to use the logos of professional sports teams within artistic works. Courts have utilized different methods to balance the constitutional protections of the First Amendment with the property interests granted to the owner of a trademark. This Note discusses these methods, which include the alternative avenues approach, the likelihood of confusion test, and the right of publicity analysis. Ultimately, many courts utilize the framework presented in the seminal Rogers v. Grimaldi decision. This test analyzes the artistic relevance of the trademark’s use in the allegedly infringing work, while also protecting against explicitly misleading uses. Currently, federal circuits apply the Rogers test inconsistently, particularly in the Second, Sixth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits. This Note calls for a consistent method to harmonize First Amendment protections with trademark property interests through the Rogers test. This Note proposes that the threshold for First Amendment protections should remain relatively low for culturally relevant marks. This Note also argues that courts should analyze a First Amendment defense before engaging in a likelihood of confusion inquiry. This Note’s suggested approach would implement important safeguards to avoid lengthy trademark litigation, and thus, incentivize more artistic works by lowering transaction costs

An Evaluation of The Effects of Spaced Trial Fading on Skill Acquisition: An Analysis of Transfer of Stimulus Control

The purpose of this study was to assess efficacy of spaced trial fading procedures on skill acquisition and transfer of stimulus control. Specifically, 3 participants were each taught a set of skills identified from the ABLLS or VB-MAPP. Each set of skills was randomly assigned to a no spaced-trial treatment group or spaced trial fading treatment group. In addition, maintenance and generalization probes were conducted following mastery to assess skill acquisition and transfer of stimulus control 1 week following treatment

Human protein C concentrates in adult septic patients

Some case reports and case series suggest that protein C concentrates may improve the outcome in patients with congenital or acquired protein C deficiency (not only in those with sepsis induced purpura fulminans). We reviewed the published literature on the use of protein C concentrates in adult septic patients and found that it is limited to less than 70 patients reported in observational studies with a 70% survival, and added our personal experience (two adult patients with sepsis and contraindications to recombinant activated protein C)

Analysis of influenza vaccination coverage among the elderly in Genoa (Italy) based on a deprivation index, 2009-2013

IntroductionElderly use to develop more complications after influenza and the 90% of deaths for influenza regards them. Indeed, they are among the major target of vaccination campaigns. The use of deprivation indices can help to identify subgroups with lower vaccine uptake. This work was aimed to analyze vaccination coverage of elderly living in Genoa using a local Index of Socio-Economic and Health Deprivation (SEHDI) in order to identify subgroups of population needing specific actions to improve vaccination coverage.MethodsThe target population was the population aged ≥65 years living in Genoa in the 2009-2013 period. Information about vaccination coverage derived from general practitioners. A combination of linear regression, factor analysis and cluster analysis was used to build the SEHDI at Census Tract (CT) level, deriving data from the 2011 Italian census.ResultsIn Genoa, in 2011, people aged ≥65 years represented the 27.7% of the population. The majority of elderly belonged to medium (45.3%) and medium-high (32%) deprivation groups, while the percentages in the extreme tails were low (3.6% high deprived; 1.3% low deprived). Significant not linear (p<0.05 NL) relationships were observed in both sexes for all respiratory diseases (RD) and COPD mortality, with the highest SMRs values in the high deprivation group of women (1.81, p<0.05 RD; 1.79, p<0.05 COPD). The SMRs for influenza and pneumonia showed a linear positive trend in women (p<0.05), with the highest value in the high deprived (1.97, p<0.05), while in men the trend was NL (p<0.05). A positive linear trend (p<0.05) was found for vaccination coverage, weakly growing at deprivation increase until the medium-high deprived group (from 34.6% to 44.4%), but the high deprivation group showed the lowest value (33,3%).ConclusionsThe results displayed a positive relationship between deprivation and vaccination coverage. This finding should be taken into account in the organization of vaccination campaigns and should call for differentiated actions in each small areas

Administration of protein C concentrates in patients without congenital deficit: a systematic review of the literature

Endogenous protein C levels are frequently decreased in septic patients, probably due to increased conversion to activated protein C. Protein C levels inversely correlate with morbidity and mortality of septic patients regardless of age, infecting microorganisms, presence of shock, disseminated intravascular coagulation, degree of hypercoagulation, or severity of illness. Taken together, these considerations suggest a strong correlation between protein C pathways and survival from severe sepsis/septic shock, and reinforce the rationale for the attempts to normalize plasma activity of protein C to improve survival, hamper coagulopathy, and modulate inflammation. We therefore conducted a systematic review of all manuscripts describing protein C concentrates administration in adult and pediatric populations. We identified 28 studies, for a total of 340 patients, 70 of whom died (20.6%). Septic patients were the most represented in this review of case reports and case series. In the majority of these patients sepsis was associated with meningitis, purpura fulminans or disseminated intravascular coagulation. No bleeding complications related to the study drug were reported and most studies underlined normalization of inflammatory markers and of coagulation abnormalities. We conclude that protein C concentrate is an attractive option in septic patients (especially those with meningitis, purpura fulminans, or disseminated intravascular coagulation) and that its cost-benefit ratio must be studied with a large multicenter randomized control trial, possibly including also high risk patients with septic shock and multiple organ failure

Human protein C concentrate in pediatric septic patients

Severe sepsis and septic shock are leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the pediatric population. Unlike what is suggested for the adult population, recombinant human activated protein C (rhAPC) is contraindicated in children. Long before rhAPC was considered for use in pediatric patients, case reports appeared on the safe administration of protein C zymogen. Therefore, we conducted a systemic review of currently available data on protein C zymogen (PC) use among children affected by severe sepsis or septic shock. A total number of 13 case series or case reports and a dose-finding study were found on the use of PC in the pediatric intensive care unit, reporting on 118 treated children, with an overall survival of 84%. There was no bleeding complication, the only reported complication being a single mild allergic reaction. These studies show that PC is safe, not associated with bleeding and possibly useful for improving coagulation abnormalities of sepsis

When ˝clinician˝ does not rhyme with ˝communication˝

It is sad to say that communication skills, whether needed by a clinician to give a prognosis to a terrified patient or required by a petrified speaker during a congress presentation, are very often lacking from the modern-day biomedical professional’s armamentarium