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Trademarks have a fundamental role to designate origin of products or manufacturers, as well as vast importance in relations between companies and consumers. This study aims to examine whether the companies from Sergipe, Brazil, which seek to protect their brands, reach their goal, the registration, aiming to constitute a state scenario related to the success and failure of applications, and what reasons contribute for companies to have their trademark applications refused. The sample was 761 companies from Sergipe, divided into 5 groups of business segments, named according to its relationship with its branches activities and denominated as follows: Construction, Food, Confection and Graphic Services and the remaining grouped in the group named Others. Data were collected from consultations at the Federal Revenue and INPI. Data analysis, performed with a quantitative approach, showed that 32.8% of applications are filed and 31.6% registered. Between the registered, the Limited Liability Companies cover 93.1% and 6.9% Individual Entrepreneurs. The branches with the lowest representation was the Construction with only one registration. Demonstrating also, a lack of knowledge about the functioning of the trademark protection system even in its most basic aspects, such as what cannot be registered, non-use of research in the PTO database at the strategy for choosing brands to avoid clashing, among others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of posters with illustrations, instructions, and appeals for hand-washing was evaluated in terms of their effect on the frequency of occurrence this procedure, before the contact with the patients, in the Intensive Therapy Unit of the Hospital Evangélico, Londrina, Paraná, Brazil. The influence of posters was statistically significant on the frequency of hand-washing by physicians, trained-nurses and laboratory technicians, but not in respect to physical-therapists, or blood-bank and X-ray technicians.