What's in a Sign? Trademark Law and Economic Theory

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to summarise the extant theory as it relates to the economics of trademark, and to give some suggestions for further research with reference to distinct streams of literature. The proposed line of study inevitably looks at the complex relationship between signs and economics. Trademark is a sign introduced to remedy a market failure. It facilitates purchase decisions by indicating the provenance of the goods, so that consumers can identify specific quality attributes deriving from their own, or others', past experience. Trademark holders, on their part, have an incentive to invest in quality because they will be able to reap the benefits in terms of reputation. In other words, trademark law becomes an economic device which, opportunely designed, can produce incentives for maximising market efficiency. This role must, of course, be recognised, as a vast body of literature has done, with its many positive economic consequences. Nevertheless, trademark appears to have additional economic effects that should be properly recognized: it can determine the promotion of market power and the emergence of rent-seeking behaviours. It gives birth to an idiosyncratic economics of signs where very strong protection tends to be assured, even though the welfare effects are as yet poorly understood. In this domain much remains to be done and the challenge to researchers is open

The Millenium Bug: cronaca di un evento ‘that never was’

La ricerca prende le mosse dall'evento del 'baco del millennio' per proporre come si sia svolto nel tempo il viaggio della notizia, insieme al viaggio delle tipologie testuali ad essa correlata. Attraverso un corpus di settantadue articoli tratti da sei quotidiani britannici dal maggio 1996 al marzo 2001, il viaggio della notizia diventa un viaggio tra strategie e dimensioni testuali, che sembrano testimoniare come la storia di un evento sia soprattutto la storia del modo di parlare dell'evento stesso

The more you know, the better: A Heckman repeat-sales price index

The Repeat-Sales (RS) model controls quality by using the prices of the same items in various time periods. However, this methodology suffers from sample selection bias. To address this issue, a Heckman two-stage procedure has been applied to a sample of Picasso paintings from 1990 to 2016. Contrary to the literature \u2014 which argues sample selection bias comes from buy-ins \u2014 in this paper, bias is modelled to capture information on items sold only once. The research field frequently uses the standard (RS) index, yet empirical evidence shows systematic differences between the standard RS index and the Heckman RS index. These differences are relevant when buyers make decisions on art investments

Contemporary Art Fairs in Mainland China: From Local to International Status?

Although the contemporary art system has experienced relevant changes in Mainland China over the past decades, only recently it gained an international reputation. Within this context, art fairs played a strategic role in developing relationships with players of the global art world. The aim of this paper is to analyze this internationalization process by focusing on two dimensional measures: the composition of galleries attending art fairs and their network embeddedness. Using Social Network Analysis (SNA) to explore contemporary art fairs in Mainland China over the period 2007–2019, we show the transition from local to international hub, suggesting the importance of art fairs as a potential soft power vehicle

The effect of realism on the confidence in spatial data quality in stereoscopic 3D displays

This paper reports on an empirical study investigating whether novice users infer higher spatial data quality from more realistic looking (static) displays depicted with a stereoscopic 3D viewing system. Thirty participants were presented with large 3D views including natural and built features at three levels of realism (photorealistic, CAD-style, and sketch-style renderings). They were asked to rate the 3D view types in their confidence of being credible spatial representations of their real-world referents. Participants’ confidence ratings were significantly highest for photorealistic displays, followed by CAD-style, and lastly sketch-style renderings. This study provides new insights into the effects of photorealism for spatial data depiction, and the potential influence graphic fidelity might have on people’s beliefs in the quality of the underlying spatial data

Rhabdomyosarcomas: an overview on the experimental animal models.

Rhabdomyosarcomas (RMS) are aggressive childhood soft-tissue malignancies deriving from mesenchymal progenitors that are committed to muscle-specific lineages. Despite the histopathological signatures are associated to three main histological variants, termed embryonal, alveolar and pleomorphic, a plethora of genetical and molecular changes are recognized in RMS. Over the years, exposure to carcinogens or ionizing radiations and gene targeting approaches in vivo have greatly contributed to disclose some of the mechanisms underlying RMS onset. In this review, we describe the principal distinct features associated to RMS variants and focus on the current available experimental animal models to point out the molecular determinants cooperating to RMS development and progression

La didattica dell'oralità tra tradizione e innovazione

Nell’ambito dell’insegnamento e apprendimento delle lingue straniere (LS), l’approccio orientato all’azione proposto dal Quadro Comune Europeo di Riferimento per le lingue (QCER) conferisce grande importanza alla didattica dell’oralità. Lo studio ha l’obiettivo di osservare gli strumenti e le risorse a disposizione per l’insegnamento e apprendimento di interazioni orali; il focus è posto sull’insegnamento della lingua francese (FLE) nel contesto universitario italiano. Dopo una breve introduzione sullo stato dell’arte relativo alla didattica delle interazioni, la presentazione della metodologia e del QCER, sono descritti sia l’evoluzione della manualistica FLE in relazione alle interazioni considerate, sia il contributo di risorse disponibili online per il loro arricchimento e completamento.Dans le domaine de l'enseignement/apprentissage des langues étrangères (LS), l'approche actionnelle proposée par le Cadre européen commun de référence pour les langues (CECR) accorde une grande importance à la didactique de l'oralité. L'objectif de cette étude est celui d'observer les outils et les ressources disponibles pour l'enseignement/apprentissage de l'interaction orale ; l'accent est mis sur l'enseignement de la langue française (FLE) dans le contexte universitaire italien. Après une brève introduction sur l'état de l'art concernant l'enseignement des interactions, la présentation de la méthodologie et du CECRL, on décrit à la fois l'évolution des manuels de FLE par rapport aux interactions considérées et l'apport des ressources en ligne disponibles pour les enrichir et les compléter