Hasta La Gadget!

Despite receiving hundreds of millions of pounds in government subsidies, the effort to bring high-speed internet to rural parts of the UK seems to be running seriously behind schedule. The National Audit Office (NAO) says the original goal of providing 90 percent of Brits with access to at least a 25Mbps connection by May 2015 will likely be pushed back to the end of 2016 — and at a cost that’s £207 million ($312 million) more than first anticipated. A big part of the problem, according to the NAO, is a lack of competition among those bidding to help with the project. BT has already been awarded more than half of the local contracts and no other company is in the running to scoop up what’s left. As well as slowing things down, this effective monopoly may also be adding to the financial pain; whereas before the government expected BT to foot 36 percent of the bill, that’s now dropped to just 23 percent. Microsoft’s whitespace idea could avoid all these issues, but in terms of schedules it seems just as remote.

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Source: The Telegraph

After filing for a trademark for “iWatch” in several countries, including Japan, Mexico, Russia, Taiwan, and Turkey, Apple may have a bit more trouble filing for the same trademark in other countries such as the US, UK, and China, mostly because “iWatch” has already been trademarked in these countries.

A smartwatch company in the US, known as OMG Electronics, has already trademarked the name, but they ultimately ended up failing when they couldn’t raise the necessary funds on Indiegogo to create an “iWatch.” As for the UK, the trademarked name is used for a monitoring smartphone app (get it?). In China, iWatch trademarks are currently invalid, but “iWatching” isn’t, and if Apple ended up trademarking “iWatch” in China, it could be enough for legal action.

However, it seems Apple shouldn’t have too much of an issue gaining these trademarks in the US and UK, but China will be a bit more difficult to obtain, as Apple has had to some tough times in the past dealing with trademarks in China. For instance, the Chinese company that owned the “iPad” trademark essentially blackmailed Apple into paying more money than originally settled upon.

We’ve been hearing a lot of talk about an upcoming smartwatch from Apple, but not a lot of solid evidence until recently, when Apple filed for the “iWatch” trademark in several countries. We still have to know what to expect in the rumored smartwatch, but it’ll most likely run iOS and do nifty tricks like bring up notifications, and possibly act as a second display of sorts.

In the end, there will indeed be a trademark war between Apple and a few companies who own the “iWatch” trademark, but the Cupertino-based company will most likely come out as the victor if they cough up enough money for the rights to the name. It’ll certainly be interesting to see how it plays out in the next few months.

VIA: Electronista

Apple iWatch trademark war ahead is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Maybe despite their screams to the press that they would win, they knew what was coming, what was inevitable. What followed that amazing day when my husband and I woke up without equality and went to bed with 1,100 more rights, was truly dumbfounding.
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