The Trademark Ninja's Posts

Protected: Google Tez – New Trademark suggests new Google products

August 16, 2017 by Trademark Ninja Leave a Comment

Apple Trademarks – The Trademark Ninja Brian Conroy quoted in Bloomberg Article

August 2, 2017 by Trademark Ninja Leave a Comment

Brian Conroy on Apple Trademarks

Over the past few weeks I’ve been dealing with Bloomberg Tech journalist Mark Gurman on a story surrounding Apple Trademarks.

This first arose from posts last year exclusively revealing Apple Trademarks, some of which weren’t announced for months.

You can check out those posts HERE or search the site using the search bar for “Apple”

Following on from that Mark was hoping that I might be able to repeat the trick, and find more secret Apple trademarks.

I wasn’t, but there’s a bit more too it than that.

The full text of the Article is reproduced below.

The original appears here on Bloomberg, Credit Mark Gurman – https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-31/apple-versus-the-trademark-sleuths

Following on from the Article, I was interviewed on Bloomberg Radio, and you can hear that interview HERE

Text of Article – Source Bloomberg / @markgurman" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mark Gurman

Apple Versus the Trademark Sleuths

For years, self-styled gumshoes have unearthed the names of soon-to-launch gadgets by searching trademark offices from Jamaica to Trinidad. Then that got a lot harder.

Mark Gurman

July 31, 2017, 11:00 AM GMT+1

One of Apple’s most fiercely guarded secrets? The name of the next iPhone. It’s known that the device will launch later this year, complete with a stainless steel and glass body, a better screen and a speedy 3-D sensor that recognizes your face. It may be called the iPhone X to celebrate the iconic product’s tenth anniversary or just iPhone 8. But Tim Cook doesn’t want us to know for sure until he utters the name on stage.

In recent years, Apple-obsessed sleuths have managed to ferret out the names and details of the company’s products by searching trademark offices around the world. But their challenge has become exponentially harder thanks to a well-timed rule change at Jamaica’s trademark office and some clever maneuvering in Liechtenstein.

First a little background. Apple has employed various tactics to keep its product names secret over the years. One is to simply register the name via a Delaware shell company. That’s what the company did as it was preparing to launch the iPad in 2010. But the trademark was also filed in major regions like Asia, and by the time Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad at a splashy event in San Francisco, the self-styled detectives had plastered the product’s name all over the web.

A more effective approach also used by Google, Amazon and other tech companies involves registering names in foreign countries without searchable trademark databases. The tactic leverages a rule in section 44(d) of the U.S. Trademark Act that lets companies apply for a trademark in one country and receive registration priority in the U.S. if filed there within six months of the original, foreign filing date. Of the 177 countries that comply with U.S. rules, 66 lack online trademark databases. These include Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Peru and Jamaica. The latter has become a favorite hiding place for companies such as Apple.

The Jamaica Intellectual Property Office is housed in a modern palm-flanked building in the capital, Kingston. Thirty-one people work there and at least 10 trademark searches are conducted each day, according to the office’s director Lilyclaire Bellamy. The only way to conduct searches is in-person, meaning sleuths need to fly to Jamaica or hire a local trademark lawyer to search the office’s computer system like an old-school library. Searches are free, but it costs 150 Jamaican dollars ($1.17) to print out each page.

Last year, a Dublin-area attorney named Brian Conroy, having learned that Apple used Jamaica to register its trademarks, decided to see if he could dig up information on future products. Why would an Irish lawyer do such a thing with no obvious way to monetize the information? In an email, he cited three reasons: “Because I could, because I quite like the little glimpse into the future that newly filed trademarks can give [and] shameless self-promotion.” Conroy figured the international celebrity would help him land “cool new clients who might not want a boring lawyer in a suit.”

The self-described “trademark ninja” paid a local law firm hundreds of dollars to search the office’s on-site computers—and hit a rich vein. Months before Apple’s September and October launch events last year, Conroy published a list of trademarks applied for in Jamaica. One pair of filings, the “iPhone 7” and “iPhone 7 Plus,” were obviously the next handset models. Conroy also pulled up less obvious names like “AirPods” and “Touch Bar.” The AirPods ended up being the name for Apple’s new wireless earphones, while the Touch Bar is the touch screen strip on the latest MacBook Pro keyboards. (The name AirPods popped up even earlier under a shell company trademark in the U.S.)

A few months ago, Apple applied to register the trademark for its new Siri-powered speaker in Liechtenstein—the first time the company had used the principality to file for trademark priority in the U.S. While the principality has an online trademark database, product names don’t show up until the trademark application is approved, a process that takes time. As a result the world didn’t learn the gadget’s name—HomePod—until its unveiling in June. Apple declined to comment.

“I suspect Apple will keep jumping from jurisdiction to jurisdiction to keep prying eyes away,” Conroy says. “It would be a shot in the dark every time to find the trademarks of future product names.”

Even a shot in the dark may be overly optimistic. Three weeks after the Jamaican trademark filings for the new iPhone and earphones hit the web last year, the local trademark office made it a lot harder to search for product names.

Apple Trademarks – Brian Conroy Interview on Bloomberg Radio

August 2, 2017 by Trademark Ninja Leave a Comment

Apple Trademarks – Bloomberg Radio Interview

01 August 2017

Following up from the Bloomberg Story about Apple’s Trademarks I was a guest on Bloomberg Radio yesterday to discuss Apple Trademarks and the methods used by apple to try and make sure those trademarks are obtained in secrecy.

You can listen to the full interview here:

Alternatively, if that link isn’t working, you can also listen here:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2017-08-01/apple-takes-on-trademark-sleuths-worldwide-audio

The Bloomberg Law Radio Show is broadcast live weekdays from 1-2p ET on 1130AM in NYC, 1200AM/94.5FM-HD2 in Boston, 960AM/103.7FM-HD2 in San Francisco, 99.1FM/105.7FM-HD2 in Washington D.C. and Sirius/XM Channel 119. The show streams live on bloomberg.com, the iHeartRadio, TuneIn and Bloomberg Radio+ apps. The show is podcast and posted to Bloomberg.com/podcasts/law and iTunes

If you’re interested in speaking to me about anything to do with trademarks, I’m available for ISDN interviews and contributions from my home studio, so please feel free to get in touch

Brian

T-Mobile IOT Syncup Trademark Applications – Syncup Pets, Syncup Fitness, Syncup Family, Syncup Fleet, Syncup Fun

July 29, 2017 by Trademark Ninja Leave a Comment

T-Mobile Syncup Trademarks

Syncup trademark for Sycnup Drive:

US mobile carrier T-Mobile has an IOT device called T-Mobile Syncup Drive as a way of connecting your car to the Internet Of Things.

But that, it appears is only the beginning. In the last 10 days, a shelf company for T Mobile has applied for a number of other US trademarks on the basis of original trademark applications filed in Trinidad and Tobago in January 2017.

Specifically, T-Mobile has applied for trademark registrations for:

Syncup Pets
Syncup Fitness
Syncup Family
Syncup Safety
Syncup Fleet, and
Syncup Fun

The details of all the T Mobile Syncup trademark applications can be found below (Click on them to enlarge)

Remember, if you like it, link to it!

Syncup Trademark Application Details:

Syncup Fleet Application for:

Class 09 – Computers; computer peripherals; computer networking devices; network controllers; computer network bridges; wireless computer network bridges; communications networks consisting of computer hardware and software for setting up and configuring local area networks; communication networks consisting of a free-standing hub or lan (local area network) unit and associated networking hardware and software; smartphones; cellular telephones; tablet computers; software; internet of things (iot) devices; motion detectors; pressure sensors; moisture sensors; temperature sensors; wifi access points; radio frequency identification (rfid) readers; radio frequency identification (rfid) tags; low-energy wireless beacon transceivers; Wireless access point devices; wireless access point devices, namely, onboard diagnostic system equipment and dongles that provide wireless connectivity to a cellular telecommunications network; software for monitoring the location of onboard diagnostic system equipment and dongles; software for providing updates and alerts concerning the location of onboard diagnostic system equipment and dongles; software for receiving and viewing motor vehicle location information; software for receiving and viewing updates and alerts concerning performance metrics of motor vehicles; software for receiving and viewing updates and alerts concerning the driving behavior of motor vehicle operators; computer software for establishing geofencing boundaries, establishing rules for the generation of alerts associated with geofenced boundaries, and receiving and viewing alerts associated with geofenced boundaries; computer software for receiving and viewing motor vehicle trip data; software for fleet management; internet of things (iot) devices

Class 38: Machine to machine (m2m) telecommunications services; internet of things (iot) telecommunications services; providing electronic transmission of data and information to wirelessly connected machine to machine (m2m) devices, network-connected devices and to internet connected devices; electronic transmission of data on wireless networks for machine to machine (m2m) and internet of things (iot) services and connected devices; telecommunications consultation; wireless telecommunications services

Class 42 – Platform as a service (paas) featuring computer software platforms for internet of things (iot) device integration software; software as a service (saas) featuring computer software for use to connect and control internet of things (iot) electronic devices; software as a service (saas) featuring computer software for connecting, operating, integrating, controlling, and managing networked devices; software as a service (saas) featuring computer software for others to use for the development of software to manage, connect, and operate internet of things (iot) electronic devices

Syncup Fitness Application for:

Class 09 – Computers; computer peripherals; computer networking devices; network controllers; computer network bridges; wireless computer network bridges; communications networks consisting of computer hardware and software for setting up and configuring local area networks; wireless access point devices; communication networks consisting of a free-standing hub or lan (local area network) unit and associated networking hardware and software; smartphones; cellular telephones; tablet computers; software; internet of things (iot) devices; motion detectors; pressure sensors; moisture sensors; temperature sensors; wifi access points; dongles that provide wireless connectivity to a cellular telecommunications network; radio frequency identification (rfid) readers; radio frequency identification (rfid) tags; low-energy wireless beacon transceivers

Class 38 – Machine to machine (m2m) telecommunications services; internet of things (iot) telecommunications services; providing electronic transmission of data and information to wirelessly connected machine to machine (m2m) devices, network-connected devices and to internet connected devices; electronic transmission of data on wireless networks for machine to machine (m2m) and internet of things (iot) services and connected devices; telecommunications consultation; wireless telecommunications services

Class 42 – Platform as a service (paas) featuring computer software platforms for internet of things (iot) device integration software; software as a service (saas) featuring computer software for use to connect and control internet of things (iot) electronic devices; software as a service (saas) featuring computer software for connecting, operating, integrating, controlling, and managing networked devices; software as a service (saas) featuring computer software for others to use for the development of software to manage, connect, and operate internet of things (iot) electronic devices