Discovery Trademarks “Everybook”

August 2009: Discovery E-Book Filing Raises Eyebrows

Is Discovery Communications gearing up for a jump into the suddenly hot e-book space? A filing made public this week by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office raises that possibility.

According to the filing, the Silver Spring-based media company applied in February for a patent on a product it describes as an “electronic book having electronic commerce features.”

And now in December 2009 it has a name …

How Book Publishing Will Lose: eBooks Vs. Smart Digital Books

Two Major Publishers To Hold Back E-Books

“The right place for the e-book is after the hardcover but before the paperback,” said Carolyn Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS Corp. “We believe some people will be disappointed. But with new [electronic] readers coming and sales booming, we need to do this now, before the installed base of e-book reading devices gets to a size where doing it would be impossible.“

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

Carolyn Reidy, is it difficult to be this clueless?

Let’s see … not a single Harry Potter book has been released in electronic format.

Yet is every Harry Potter book available in every electronic format?

Yes.

All you’re doing with this delay is saying: “Hey, kids! Rev up your scanners and bleed our writers to death!”

Oh Give It Up. Steve Jobs Wins.

New Digital Publishing Venture Boasts Access To 144 Million-Plus Audience; Squires Talks

Four key goals: The venture has four key goals initially:

—Be ready for full-color devices with an application that renders publications “in beautiful form” and in “recognizable” form.

—Develop a platform that can enable that across multiple devices, operating systems and screens.

—Develop a common digital storefront where consumers can easily make purchases and get universal access on any device as they buy digital products from their publisher.

—Work with advertisers to co-develop new advertising forms that Squires expects will be more immersive with the power of digital delivery. “This has the potential to be a new and vastly important branding medium for advertisers, particularly with larger screen devices.”

Um…. this bit?

—Develop a platform that can enable that across multiple devices, operating systems and screens.

That bit is called The Internet.

Baker & Taylor has the next big thing in ebooks. Really!

If the ebook rendering and toolkit put to shame everything that has been done so far (and they do), the same is true of the retailing presentation. The virtual books look look like physical books on a shelf. They have spines. You click on one and pull it down, rotate it, open it, and flip through the pages. Unless you’re on a PC and want to look at 50 pages at once, that is.

If what I saw on Gagnon’s computer is matched in the actual platform launch, I’ll be shopping and reading on this platform on my iPhone starting immediately.

This is strangely sparse of, you know, actual technical details.

And this:

B&T’s Blio system is raising the bar for all of them by combining simple authoring tools with a delivery platform that enables enhanced editions.

What he has just described is iTunes, the iTablet, and Pages.

And this:

It won’t take long before many books, and, one would assume, all books that have large audiences will be available in something far more interesting than just a digital rendering of what appeared in print.

Yeah, well, welcome to several months ago. Glad you caught up.

But neither of these matter.

The only thing that matters is what Apple does. Period.

There are over sixty million of the iPhone and iPod Touch out there. The iTablet will sell over a million in its first year, even if it’s a whopping US$800.00.

That is the digital book platform. Nothing else.

Aside from asking, What will Apple do? The other question is, Will Apple provide a Windows-compatible digital book reading program?

Do you see how long it took Amazon to provide its desktop reader?

Apple will have iTablets to sell — just as Amazon had Kindles to sell.

Steve Jobs, again, knows how to win:

Do any of you?

Previously here:

One Step Closer To Apple Digital Books
The 7 Principles Of Apple
The Fine Print = Apple iTablet WIN!
Hybrid iPhone/Print Book Glimpse Of The Future
Apple Will Break Open The Digital Book Floodgates
Why Digital Books Will Win
ePub For Seniors
Vook Debuts Digital Books
Disney + Pixar + Marvel + Apple + iTablet
Smart Digital Books Vs. The ePub FAIL Model
He Understands Something Is Missing
English-Subtitled Editis Smart Digital Book Video
Why eInk, ePub, And eBooks Will Fail

Stop The Nook Insanity!

As if my last post about this wasn’t bad enough… this just happened a few minutes ago on eBay:

Click = big

And that’s not the worst of it, either!

Stop The Nook Madness!

This just happened a few minutes ago on eBay:

Click = big

Look, stop throwing away your dignity and money like this!

It’s not something that will save your soul!

It’s crappy eInk with an LCD grafted to the bottom!

Save your money for next year! You’ll have your choice of the Apple iTablet or one of a ton of Android mini-tablets. Barnes & Noble’s eReader software will run on all of those. DRMed Adobe ePub will also make its way onto them too — because Adobe isn’t about to pass up that money!

If you must line up on December 7th, do it only if you want one for yourself or to give personally as a gift. If you try to sell it on eBay, you will get burned.

And you will deserve it too.

UPDATE: Simplicit.E.Reader NOT On Sale

See Update at bottom:

Got this via email today:

So, it’s on.

This is a new eBook device unearthed over at the MobileRead forums.

This is the ordering page.

This is what it looks like:

The lack of screen specs makes me suspicious. I think it might be a paltry 240×320 — a repurposed photo frame screen.

Update:

Robin Lenz on Twitter dug up the email address of the company making this.

They said:

The product is actually not going to
release until 1st quarter of 2010.

And when I pressed about J.C. Penney allowing orders, they responded:

Apparent miscommunication. Should not be live on JCP site.

So put away your credit card, kids!

eBook Notes For Thursday November 12, 2009

Confessions of an Apple Manager-Turned-iPhone App Creator

How was Air Sharing received?

We gave it away for two weeks and later set the price at $7, lowered it to $5 and then introduced a more capable one for $10. I was optimistically thinking maybe 100,000 people would download it. But really I thought that was crazy talk.

As it turned out, a million downloaded it in two weeks—168,000 in the first day. That’s without advertising, no banner ads. It was just word-of-mouth and the power of the Internet.

I await figures like those for a digital book!

ePub For Seniors

E-books’ holiday charge

Epps doesn’t think that today’s e-readers will do for e-books what the iPod did for MP3s. Even if 10 million people are toting an e-book reader at the end of next year, that’s less than 1 percent of the 110 million people who have MP3 players. And at current prices, she believes the market for e-readers will top out at 25 million.

Emphasis added by me.

I think even with significantly lower prices it won’t go beyond that.

The leisurely pace of limited eInk is well suited to the geriatric set.

And as they die off, you think the young will take their place?

They’ll have been busy reading digital books.

Aluratek Libre eBook Reader

Yes, let’s inflate the eBook Bubble some more! This time with a discounted version of the ECTACO jetBook from an entirely different company!

I was in J&R this morning and my eyes did a double-take over this device. It’s identical to the ECTACO jetBook except it lacks the chromed plastic.

It has Aluratek on the front (and “Libre” nowhere to be seen). But what made eyes pop was the price: US$169.00. This is now the least-expensive eBook reading device.

The specs are here. That “ePaper technology” is nothing more than the same non-backlit transflective LCD the ECTACO jetBook uses.

I wouldn’t expect this to do Adobe DRMed ePub. I wonder if it can do DRMed eReader format.

Still, I’d stay away from it.

eBook Trademarks: Asus, Warner Brothers, And ViewSonic

Asus has three marks: Eee @Vibe, @Vibe, and Asus Arena. Applications for all three contain the same information, so I will print only one of them. These are the three logos:

Word Mark
EEE@VIBE

Goods and Services
IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer software for computer system and application development, deployment and management; computer joysticks; internet equipment; computer hardware; integrated circuit boards; computer interface boards; electronic books (e-books); digital music downloadable from the internet; downloadable video recordings from the internet; downloadable electronic books from the internet; downloadable graphics from the internet; downloadable electronic games from the internet; liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions; digital video discs (DVDs) for use in video and data storage; electronic chip cards; prepaid purchase cards for allowing users to transfer financial value on-line via computer networks

IC 035. US 100 101 102. G & S: Administration of a discount program for enabling participants to obtain discounts on goods and services through use of a discount membership card; on-line advertising on a computer network; presentation of goods on communication media for retail purposes; provision of business information; commercial information agencies; vending in the field of souvenirs; purchasing goods and services for other businesses; price comparison and evaluation services; providing on-line auction services; marketing services, namely, consumer marketing research; opinion polling; providing and rental of advertising space on the internet; providing on-line shopping services in the field of computer hardware, computer operating programs and peripheral devices; retail store services featuring computer hardware, software and peripherals; retail store services featuring telecommunication apparatus; compilation of computerized databases; management of computerized files; data search in computer files; management of computerized databases; compilation and systemization of information into computer databases

IC 038. US 100 101 104. G & S: Television broadcasting; radio broadcasting; telecommunication services of value-added computer networks; providing telecommunications connections to a global computer information network; providing on-line information transmission services; electronic transmission of mail and messages; electronic mail services; rental of electronic mailboxes; Providing on-line electronic bulletin boards for transmission of messages among users in the field of general interest; computer-aided transmission of messages and images; providing access to databases; providing telecommunication channels for teleshopping services; providing internet chat rooms; rental of access time to global computer networks; providing telecommunications connections to a global computer network; providing user access to a global computer network; providing telecommunications connections to the internet; transmission of chat rooms data via a global computer network or the internet; rental of telecommunication equipment

IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: On-line publication of electronic books and magazines; electronic publishing and editing services; providing on-line electronic publications (not downloadable); providing downloadable graphics via the internet; instruction services; educational services, namely, providing training through the Internet, in the fields of information technology, and business management skills; arranging and conducting of seminars, symposiums and workshops; education information; entertainment information; providing downloadable video programs via the internet; providing downloadable music via the internet; providing downloadable ring tones, graphics and music via a global computer network and wireless devices; providing computer network equipment to allow customers to access to the internet; providing on-line game services via a computer network; organizing and holding competitions in the field of entertainment; production of radio programs in the field of entertainment

Standard Characters Claimed

Mark Drawing Code
(4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK

Serial Number
77757096

Filing Date
June 11, 2009

Current Filing Basis
1B;44D

Original Filing Basis
1B;44D

Owner
(APPLICANT) ASUSTEK COMPUTER INCORPORATION CORPORATION TAIWAN 4F, No. 150, Li-Te Rd., Peitou Taipei TAIWAN

Attorney of Record
Steven M. Rabin

Priority Date
May 26, 2009

Description of Mark
The mark consists of Eee@Vibe in stylized font.

Type of Mark
TRADEMARK. SERVICE MARK

Register
PRINCIPAL

Live/Dead Indicator
LIVE

===================================

Related, Asus also has this trademark:

Word Mark
EEE PHONE

Goods and Services
IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer hardware; electronic pens for computer touch screens; memory cards for computer hardware; cellular phones; cell phone covers; cell phone cradles; Internet phones; reconfigurable processors for use in network equipment in the field of wideband communications; telecommunications transmitters; hands free kits for phones; receivers for satellites; car navigation computers; battery chargers for cellular phones, batteries and battery chargers

Mark Drawing Code
(5) WORDS, LETTERS, AND/OR NUMBERS IN STYLIZED FORM

Serial Number
77638797

Filing Date
December 23, 2008

Current Filing Basis
44E

Original Filing Basis
1B;44D

Published for Opposition
October 20, 2009

Owner
(APPLICANT) ASUSTEK COMPUTER INCORPORATION CORPORATION TAIWAN 4F, No. 150, Li-Te Rd., Peitou Taipei TAIWAN

Attorney of Record
Steven M. Rabin

Priority Date
November 17, 2008

Disclaimer
NO CLAIM IS MADE TO THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO USE “PHONE” APART FROM THE MARK AS SHOWN

Description of Mark
Color is not claimed as a feature of the mark.

Type of Mark
TRADEMARK

Register
PRINCIPAL

Live/Dead Indicator
LIVE

===================================

Warner Brothers turns up with a trademark that makes me wonder if there’s a Harry Potter connection: Pottermore.

Word Mark
POTTERMORE

Goods and Services
IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Entertainment services, namely, providing a web site featuring film clips, photographs and other multimedia materials; providing on-line computer games; providing computer games that may be accessed by a telecommunications network; educational services, namely, providing information that may be accessed by a telecommunications network relating specifically to children’s books, educational programs including reading and literacy programs, programs for the teaching of reading and literacy, materials and programs for the facilitation of reading and learning for individuals with learning disabilities and language and literacy difficulties; providing on-line publications in the nature of e-books; electronic publishing services, namely, publication of text and graphic works of others

Standard Characters Claimed

Mark Drawing Code
(4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK

Serial Number
77788427

Filing Date
July 23, 2009

Current Filing Basis
1B

Original Filing Basis
1B

Owner
(APPLICANT) Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. CORPORATION DELAWARE 4000 Warner Boulevard Burbank CALIFORNIA 91522

Attorney of Record
Janet A. Kobrin

Type of Mark
SERVICE MARK

Register
PRINCIPAL

Live/Dead Indicator
LIVE

What’s strange is there is no website for this and a WHOIS turned up this registration:

Registrant:

Christopher Little Literary Agency
10 Eel Brook Studios
125 Moore Park Rd
London
SW6 4PS
UK

Domain name: pottermore.com

Created on: 2009-06-25
Expires on: 2011-06-25

===================================

ViewSonic pops up with two trademarks that mention eBooks: ViewShow and MovieBook.

Word Mark
VIEWSHOW

Goods and Services
IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Portable media players; MP4 media players; MP5 media players; DVD players; digital photo frames for displaying digital pictures, video clips and music; notebook computers; video telephones; computer peripheral devices; LCD televisions; LDC monitors; web cameras; mobile phones; global positioning systems (GPS); digital cameras; electronic books (E-books); and projectors

Standard Characters Claimed

Mark Drawing Code
(4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK

Serial Number
77815187

Filing Date
August 28, 2009

Current Filing Basis
1B

Original Filing Basis
1B

Owner
(APPLICANT) Viewsonic Corporation CORPORATION CALIFORNIA 381 Brea Canyon Rd., Walnut CALIFORNIA 91789

Attorney of Record
Bruce H. Troxell

Type of Mark
TRADEMARK

Register
PRINCIPAL

Live/Dead Indicator
LIVE

===================================

Word Mark
MOVIEBOOK

Goods and Services
IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: PORTABLE MEDIA PLAYER; MP4 MEDIA PLAYERS; MP5 MEDIA PLAYERS; DVD PLAYERS; DIGITAL PHOTO FRAMES FOR DISPLAYING DIGITAL PICTURES, VIDEO CLIPS, AND MUSIC; NOTE BOOK COMPUTER; VIDEO TELEPHONES; COMPUTER PERIPHERAL DEVICES; LCD TELEVISIONS; LCD MONITORS; WEB CAMERAS; MOBILE PHONES; GPS (GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM); DIGITAL CAMERA; E-BOOK (ELECTRONIC BOOK)

Standard Characters Claimed

Mark Drawing Code
(4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK

Serial Number
77795057

Filing Date
August 2, 2009

Current Filing Basis
1B

Original Filing Basis
1B

Owner
(APPLICANT) VIEWSONIC CORPORATION CORPORATION DELAWARE 381 BREA CANYON ROAD WALNUT CALIFORNIA 91789

Attorney of Record
MORTON J. ROSENBERG

Type of Mark
TRADEMARK

Register
PRINCIPAL

Live/Dead Indicator
LIVE