UCL School of Management is delighted to welcome, Anthony Dukes, University of South Carolina, to host a research seminar discussing: ‘Litigation as a Marketing Tool: Protecting Brand Names against Trademark Infringement ‘

Abstract:

This research explores the role of trademark litigation can be used to protect a brand against trademark infringement in markets where government enforcement is weak. Litigation can convey to potential counterfeiters that a trademark-holding firm would sue upon entry. We explore this idea empirically in the context of pharmaceutical trademarks in India using the framework of a stylized theoretical model. We construct a database of trademarks and examine litigation activity by certain trademark-holders. Our findings indicate that litigation reduces subsequent infringement. Because litigation can be extremely costly for a trademark-holding firm, it is worthwhile only when it has legal advantages in pursuing cases. Not all trademark-holding firms have such legal advantages and are, therefore, better off surrendering to infringers and incurring a cycle of settlements with future infringement.

Bio:

Anthony Dukes is the Robert E. Brooker Chair in Marketing and Professor at University of Southern California. He studies marketing intermediaries - the businesses that connect marketers to their customers - such as retailers, e-commerce platforms, and commercial content sites. His research appears regularly in leading academic journals such as Journal of Marketing Research, Management Science, and Marketing Science. He is Co-Director (with Danny Sokol) of the Initiative on Digital Competition and senior editor at the journal Marketing Science.