Barnes & Noble Secret Nook Trademark Filing

No wonder I couldn’t find it! They registered it via another company: Corporation service company.

Word Mark
NOOK

Goods and Services
IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: portable electronic apparatus for displaying, receiving, reading and storing downloadable electronic publications, namely, books, e-books, magazines, newspapers, text, images, digital web site content and digital media featuring music through wired and wireless Internet access, accessories therefor and instructional manuals, sold as a unit

Standard Characters Claimed

Mark Drawing Code
(4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK

Serial Number
77751835

Filing Date
June 4, 2009

Current Filing Basis
1B

Original Filing Basis
1B

Published for Opposition
October 20, 2009

Owner
(APPLICANT) Fission Inc. CORPORATION DELAWARE c/o Corporation Service Company 2711 Centerville Road, Suite 400 Wilmington DELAWARE 19808

Attorney of Record
Kristin Werner

Type of Mark
TRADEMARK

Register
PRINCIPAL

Live/Dead Indicator
LIVE

Previously here:

Barnes & Noble’s Mightywords? Quamut? Qwiki? Reader
Barnes & Noble Strange Trademarks

E Is Also For Envy

Once Upon A Time …

… when tech things cost a lot more than they do right now, there were these things called Pocket PCs.

I imagined back then that I could do a lot more with a Pocket PC than I could with the Palm III I had and was very keen to find out more about a low-priced Pocket PC from Compaq, the Aero.

The Aero was low-priced because unlike all other Pocket PCs, it had a monochrome screen.

That didn’t bother me back then. I was dealing primarily with text.

One night, I had an opportunity to go to some sort of Pocket PC meeting in New York City.

There, I happened to meet someone who owned the Aero.

He was a poet.

He was glad to give me a demonstration and was very pleased with the Aero. He recommended it very highly.

He was the only person there that night with an Aero. Everyone else had much more expensive Pocket PCs and they all had color screens.

Before the night was through, this guy who had been very satisfied with his Aero began to feel like a pauper — because everyone else had color screens!

I was shocked by his turnaround in attitude. Suddenly the Aero was no longer good enough for him. Owning it seemed to be a reflection of his economic status. Even of his social status. Of his very manliness!

As you can see, I never forgot this incident.

What does this have to do with eBooks?

Save your money.

The eBook Bubble: Save Your Money!

Oh my god. It’s getting like fleas hopping off a stray dog.

Plastic Logic Shows Off a (Quick) Look at its Kindle Killer: Meet the Que

Que Reader website

Spring Design Announces Dual Screen E-book Reader,
Hyperlinking Text with Multimedia

And tomorrow Barnes & Noble is due to announce its “Athena” eBook device, which somewhat resembles the Spring device scheme: eInk screen grafted to a minor color touchscreen.

All of these are due to be a passing fad. Don’t fall for them.

Want evidence this is a bubble? The price of the jetBook recently went from $299.00 to $199.00. If they could suddenly afford to cut the price by one-third, why didn’t they do it sooner to really compete? I have to wonder if they’re simply dumping their stock now in order to exit!

There are several important factors that work against buying all of these devices:

1) eInk is a rotten technology. It is. It’s slow and limited in functionality and no amount of software/hardware tinkering by Sony or anyone else can make that sow’s ear into a silk purse. eInk should be used for advertising, period.

2) Pixel Qi has a superior screen and it’s going to be here within a few months. How widespread this screen will be depends on whether or not Asus sees the wisdom in picking it up for its own eBook device. If Asus picks it up, it’s game over for all of the eInk pushers.

3) Apple will announce its mythical iTablet soon, perhaps as early as January. Yes, it will cost more — but so did the iPhone. Now the iPhone dominates. The iTablet will likewise take over the entire “print media” market, bending all of it to its will — just as the iPod did with music.

4) Digital books versus eBooks. Vook, Enhanced Editions, Disney, Electronic Arts and even the government have skipped eInk and are pioneering digital books, which are clearly superior to the lightly tarted-up text files ePub offers. ePub will be dumped — because Apple won’t settle for such an low-end abomination.

5) Consider your money to be for an investment instead of a purchase. This will put the matter in perspective. Do you want regret or satisfaction later? If you buy now, you’ll sow upcoming regret. If you wait, you will be satisfied beyond anything being offered today.

Save your money. Let all these companies spend theirs.

Prior eBook Bubble posts here:

eBook Notes For Friday October 16, 2009
eBook Notes For Thursday, October 15, 2009
Qisda (Formerly BenQ) To Do eBook Reader
Toshiba: We’ll Do An eBook Device Too!
Yet Another eBook Device: Oaxis
The eBook Bubble Coming To CES 2010
eBook Bubble Notes