With a week to go before CES, where high dynamic range figures to be a big issue, Philips appears to be inching closer to landing Patent and Trademark Office registration of the “hdr” trademark, agency records show. According to a Dec. 5 notification, the Philips application (serial number 79162105) is due to be published Tuesday in PTO’s Official Gazette, setting in motion a 30-day comment period during which outside parties may file oppositions. Barring such oppositions, PTO under its customary procedures would grant Philips registration of the “hdr” mark a short time later. The lower-case "hdr” is included in the image accompanying the application. It remains a mystery how Philips would use the trademark if granted the registration. The Philips HDR proposal, one of two proprietary systems along with Dolby Vision to be designated as HDR options in the Ultra HD Blu-ray format, is based in the same Philips Intellectual Property and Standards office from which the trademark application emanated. But Marty Gordon, a spokesman for the Philips HDR team, said that team has no plans to use the logo in its forthcoming activities to win adoption of the Philips HDR system. Representatives of corporate Philips or the various entities like Funai and TP Vision that have licensed the Philips brand for TVs and other CE products didn’t comment.
With a week to go before CES, where high dynamic range figures to be a big issue, Philips appears to be inching closer to landing Patent and Trademark Office registration of the “hdr” trademark, agency records show. According to a Dec. 5 notification, the Philips application (serial number 79162105) is due to be published Tuesday in PTO’s Official Gazette, setting in motion a 30-day comment period during which outside parties may file oppositions. Barring such oppositions, PTO under its customary procedures would grant Philips registration of the “hdr” mark a short time later. The lower-case "hdr” is included in the image accompanying the application. It remains a mystery how Philips would use the trademark if granted the registration. The Philips HDR proposal, one of two proprietary systems along with Dolby Vision to be designated as HDR options in the Ultra HD Blu-ray format, is based in the same Philips Intellectual Property and Standards office from which the trademark application emanated. But Marty Gordon, a spokesman for the Philips HDR team, said that team has no plans to use the logo in its forthcoming activities to win adoption of the Philips HDR system. Representatives of corporate Philips or the various entities like Funai and TP Vision that have licensed the Philips brand for TVs and other CE products didn’t comment.
With a week to go before CES, where high dynamic range figures to be a big issue front and center, Philips appears to be inching closer to landing Patent and Trademark Office registration of the “hdr” trademark, agency records show. According to a Dec. 5 agency notification, the Philips application (serial number 79162105) is due to be published Tuesday in PTO’s Official Gazette, setting in motion a short comment period where outside parties may file oppositions. Barring those oppositions, PTO under its customary procedures would grant Philips registration of the hdr mark a short time later.
LG's third-generation webOS 3.0 smart TV platform to be showcased at CES has landed UL “verification” for its compatibility with IoT devices in the home, LG said in a Tuesday announcement.
Undersea cable operators and industry groups again said substantial changes are needed in the FCC's proposed submarine cable outage reporting requirements (see 1512040037) they see as potentially burdensome. The groups' reply comments on the issue submitted last week were posted Monday in docket 15-206. The FCC proposes to hold undersea cable operators to stricter reporting standards in order to collect timely and systematic data on outages, which under the proposed rule would need to be reported if there's lost connectivity or degradation of 50 percent or more of an undersea cable's capacity for at least 30 minutes (see 1509170047).
Undersea cable operators and industry groups again said substantial changes are needed in the FCC's proposed submarine cable outage reporting requirements (see 1512040037) they see as potentially burdensome. The groups' reply comments on the issue submitted last week were posted Monday in docket 15-206. The FCC proposes to hold undersea cable operators to stricter reporting standards in order to collect timely and systematic data on outages, which under the proposed rule would need to be reported if there's lost connectivity or degradation of 50 percent or more of an undersea cable's capacity for at least 30 minutes (see 1509170047).
The National Emergency Number Association said the FCC should move with care in considering Twilio’s petition for clarification that messaging services should be regulated under Title II of the Communications Act (see 1510130040). Wireless industry commenters opposed the petition outright. Some parties questioned whether changing how text messages are regulated would mean consumers would have to deal with many more spam texts. Reply comments were due Monday in docket 08-7.
The National Emergency Number Association said the FCC should move with care in considering Twilio’s petition for clarification that messaging services should be regulated under Title II of the Communications Act (see 1510130040). Wireless industry commenters opposed the petition outright. Some parties questioned whether changing how text messages are regulated would mean consumers would have to deal with many more spam texts. Reply comments were due Monday in docket 08-7.
The FCC found just one rural telco market is ineligible for continued USF support based on a rule requiring subsidies to be eliminated where there's 100 percent overlap with an unsubsidized competitor. Pineville Telephone Co. faces unsubsidized competition in all of its “study area” in North Carolina and will have its USF support phased out over the next three years, the Wireline Bureau said in an order Monday in docket 10-90.
Customs reauthorization legislation passed by the House is an indication that a Congress known for its recent difficulty to pass legislation is headed toward “regular order” (see 1512110029), House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said in a Dec. 11 statement (here). The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 should level the playing field for American workers by removing barriers to legitimate trade, making exports more competitive, and furthering small business competition in the global marketplace, Ryan said. “This is the most comprehensive rewrite of our customs enforcement laws in a generation,” he said. “It also marks the third conference report passed by the House in less than 10 days. So we are getting results for the American people.” The bill has moved to the Senate for further consideration, but a vote has not yet been scheduled, according to a congressional staffer.