John Nash and Game Theory

John Nash, a principal originator of game theory, and the subject of the Oscar-winning film A Beautiful Mind was recently killed in an automobile accident.

John Nash titles here. Our copy of a Beautiful Mind here.

Among many contributions, Nash was famous for the Nash equilibrium in game theory. From the obituary in the Guardian:

“In his discipline, he gave his name to the Nash equilibrium – a position in a situation of competition or conflict in which both sides have selected a strategy, but where neither side can then independently change their strategy without ending up in a less desirable position.”

Search Patents In Lexis-Nexis

You can look up patents and trademarks in the LexisNexis database.

To look up all patents and trademarks held BY COMPANY in LexisNexis:

1) Click the SEARCH BY CONTENT TYPE then the COMPANIES tab, 2) look up your company in COMPANY DOSSIER and then 3) patents is on the left side of screen

You can also search patents in general in LexisNexis. Again, select By Content Type then Patents.


Or, you can use the US Patent Office website, but you can't search by company so well. They also have trademarks, BTW.

Here's what the advanced patent search in LexisNexis looks like.

Stan Freberg, Ad Pioneer

From the New York Times obituary:  

His subversive but oddly effective approach caused Advertising Age to call him the father of the funny commercial and one of the 20th century’s most influential admen. He won the Clio, a top industry award, 21 times, and had a diverse clientele, including General Motors, the United States Army and the Presbyterian Church.

Mr. Freberg’s tactics worked for the simple reason that he was funny, having honed his humor on some of history’s best-selling comedy records. Paul McCartney said in 1985 that the Beatles’ anarchic humor owed much to his influence.

Our Stan Freberg books.

Hidden SWOTs in ABI Inform

 
There are some hard to find SWOTs in our database ABI Inform.

Long story short: do a keyword search of your company's name and SWOT.

Under source types, limit document type to reports.

OR

go to Browse, then select Just Series Market then select SWOT then select view documents.

Do your search by company name.

Note: ABI Inform does not have some well known companies, but the overall selection is fine.

Critical View of TTIP: Democracy Vs. Corporations

Boring title, but the TIPP is one of the more significant laws of the last 25 years. Many people note it has the effect of raising corporations over national democracy.

Film Gross and Box Office

Variety is one of the preeminent movie industry trade journals. It publishes entertainment news, articles about trends in the industry and box office results.

Current box office results are here.

Try this link for current and historic (yes! older films) total Box Office takings

Always interesting to see what makes money (not what you think). Plus, shows you importance of international BO. PLUS, that you CAN make millions doing small movies.

More current and historical data.

This site also contains international results.
 
Here are some great stats from the National Theatre Owners' website: includes grosses and average ticket prices over time, among other things.

New Biz Database: IBIS World

So you have to do an industry analysis for your management class?  Now we have the IBIS database that puts everything in one location and has better categories of businesses too!

IBISWorld

Subjects NAICS collection analyzes industries at the 5-digit level offering the latest content on 700 industries. Each report consists of 30 to 40 pages of key statistics and analysis on market characteristics, operating conditions, current and forecast performance, major industry participants and more. Coverage Current Format U.S. Industry reports Type Other Database