July 27, 2020

empowering you with insights and information from the edge of today’s headlines

Technology

Ransomware: Last week Garmin, the GPS provider, was hit by a massive ransomware attack. A hacker asked for $10M to restore service, and held hostage most of Garmin’s consumer services. While we feel for the athletes who were unable to visualize the metrics behind their daily runs, Garmin also provides GPS services to smaller aviation companies. The hack could have had more dangerous consequences than annoying the next IronMan, but most of the services are slowly coming back on line.

Virtual Fans: The NBA will be using Microsoft Teams’ Together Mode to stream live fans into the audience of the upcoming games. Fans will be able to interact with each other, and although they’ll be watching the game at home, their reactions will be live-streamed. Fans, who aren’t lucky enough to get the Teams invitation, will be able to virtual cheer through the NBA app. Not sure which is more creepy: the virtual fans or the cardboard cutouts that got decapitated from MLB home runs this weekend.

Innovation: One concern over the growth and reach of the major tech companies is that they stifle innovation. The thought goes that Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple have the power to pummel any new startup by either buying it before it has time to grow on its own or copying its features and stifling its growth. We’ve seen this phenomenon with Facebook which has a habit of copying its competitors’ features — see Instagram Stories (aka Snapchat) or Instagram Reels (aka TikTok).

Now Amazon is getting flack for engaging in a similar activity. Amazon has already been under fire for using its marketplace to collect data on popular items and then selling them under its Amazon Basics label. But now it is accused of investing in or just hearing the pitches of startups (through its Alexa Fund) and then copying their products. We’'ll see if the House Antitrust Committee (meeting postponed until Wednesday) will bring up this new wrinkle when they question Bezos.

Law

Trademarks and copyrights are traditionally used to protect a company’s brand, logo or intellectual property from competitors. Over the years some strange items have been trademarked: Apple’s slide to unlock function, Darth Vader’s breathing, the announcement “Let’s get ready to rumble,” Usain Bolt’s lightning gesture and the specific color of yellow used on Post-It notes.

Last month, the Supreme Court allowed Booking.com to trademark its name because of the “.com”. Usually generic words cannot be copyrighted, and the US Patent Office initially rejected Booking.com’s request. We won’t hold our breaths as we wait to see a flood a copyright requests by patent trolls.

This week the Trump Organization filed a request to trademark the term “Telerally.” The company stated that it will be “organizing events in the field of politics and political campaigning.” Trump held his first telerally last week, and no word on whether he paid his own company to use the phrase, but guess the Trump Organization doesn’t plan on leaving politics any time soon. (On the flip side, the Trump Campaign got a cease and desist on its own, when the Reagan Library asked Trump to stop using Reagan’s image for fundraising.)

Lifestyle

Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the UK, has had a change of heart or rather a change in diet. Johnson had a difficult battle with coronavirus, and his weight was blamed as a significant risk factor. (One study revealed that obesity increased the risk of death from coronavirus by 40%.) Johnson has decided to create a £10M anti-obesity “Better Health” campaign which will include bicycling prescriptions, a ban on junk food ads and requiring calorie counts at restaurants within the UK.

While NYC already has calorie counts at chain restaurants and dedicated bike lanes, even NYC’s former mayor Bloomberg tried to infamously limit the size of sodas sold in the city. The coronavirus seems to have had the unfortunate side effect of the quarantine 15 (gaining weight while you are in lockdown either out of stress eating or lack of exercise). NYC tailors have seen their business rise by as much as 80%, as customers look to expand their waistbands. At least one city business is on the rise!

Ever wonder what happens to that lost sock or missing shirt after a visit to the laundromat? A couple in Taiwan has created a series of fashion photo shoots from clothing left behind in their laundromat.

Have some extra change in your pocket? The US is going through a coin shortage as more customers use financial apps and more stores have been shutting down in the wake of the pandemic. The coins are out there, just not circulating, causing some companies to come up with incentives for pennies. One Chik-fil-A franchise is offering free food in exchange for coins, the US Mint has actually asked Americans to “start spending their coins,” and a bank has launched a Coin Buyback program paying above the price of the coins.

Culture

Has the lockdown made you feel like you are stuck in a continuous loop? No commute, no coffee shop, just zoom meetings and staring at your piles of dirty dishes and laundry? This artist took the corona loop to a new extreme: he painted himself painting himself painting himself…and on and on.

— Lauren Eve Cantor

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