To Xoom or not to Xoom, that is the question — and Xoom Corporation says Motorola needs to ditch the name of its new Honeycomb-laden slate . That’s right, Xoom has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit asking for monetary damages, a temporary restraining order, and / or a preliminary injunction to spoil Moto’s release party for its new tablet. In case you’re curious, Xoom (the company) does seem to predate the slate by a good bit: it’s been operating its online payments business under that name and has owned the www.xoom.com domain since 2003. Xoom got a registered service mark for its money transfer and e-payment services in 2004. But what about that Xoom trademark Motorola filed last year for mobile computers and related accessories? Traditionally, courts give priority to the first user to register a mark, so Xoom Corp. certainly has a case here, but we’re not so sure they’ll be able to prove that consumers are likely to be confused. To find out, the court will look at multiple factors to determine the likelihood of confusion: the strength of Xoom’s mark, the similarities between the two marks, the proximity of Xoom’s services and software to Moto’s tablet in the consumer marketplace, evidence of actual customer confusion, and the similarity of the marketing channels used by Moto and Xoom. Honestly, we can’t see Moto marketing the Xoom tablet to anyone looking for online payment services (aside from the occasional Android Market purchase) so Xoom Corp. has a tough road to hoe, but stranger things have happened — we’ll see how it goes. Motorola dragged into court for Xoom trademark infringement originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Parker Spitzer is no more. After weeks of rumors , CNN announced today that Kathleen Parker is leaving the 8pm show she co-hosted with Eliot Spitzer, reports the Wrap . The former governor will remain, and show will be renamed The Arena starting Monday. Joining Spitzer will be E.D. Hill and…
Continue reading …Thank you Congressman Weiner for calling out these hypocritical Republicans for their so-called conservative views. As Anthony Weiner pointed out here, Republicans are all for less government regulation, unless it means the right to regulate a woman’s uterus. They don’t want government to get between a patient and their doctor unless it means making sure that poor women don’t have access to a legal procedure. Sarah Seltzer at AlterNet has more on what the House has been keeping themselves busy with when they’re not making sure they take care of their millionaire and billionaire campaign donors — The GOP Unleashes a Horrifying Attack on Women : Republicans came to D.C. “and immediately started putting the government in charge of every single pregnancy in America,” said Rachel Maddow on Tuesday night. She’s right, and it’s horrifying: the blows to women’s rights keep coming out of Washington every hour, it seems. The latest? A bill that would strip Planned Parenthood of all funding. This bill is no surprise coming on the heels of a coordinated right-wing attack on Planned Parenthood and a spate of nasty undercover videos by discredited right-wing prankster Lila Rose. But it would do a lot of damage to a lot of women, explains Nick Baumann at Mother Jones: “[It] will cut $327 million in family planning funding that goes to organizations like Planned Parenthood but that cannot be used to pay for abortions. This money, instead, is used to fund cancer screenings, birth control, and other health care services for poor people. The $327 million is the sum total of this sort of funding under current law. The House GOP is trying to zero out Planned Parenthood.” Republicans’ twisted justification for cutting funds is that any money that goes to Planned Parenthood, even for cancer screenings, frees up the organization’s funds for abortion. But the pragmatic reality shows that cutting such funding would be devastating to women, ending the ability for many of them to prevent pregnancy at low cost and thereby potentially causing more abortions. Cuts that would deprive women of cancer screenings are unconscionable. Because Planned Parenthood treats sexually active women as human beings, it has become target #1. What’s shocking about all these attacks is that the GOP doesn’t even pretend to care about women this time around, as they sometimes do–instead, they’re waging an all-out war on women’s health. One of the most egregious salvos in this war on women is the treatment of “rape” exceptions to a proposed abortion funding ban. A massive outcry arose when the phrase “forcible rape” appeared in the notorious H.R. 3 bill–essentially redefining “acceptable” rape using an arbitrary term. It was a nasty bit of work, allowing for rape exceptions only if was the “right kind of rape.” Note to Republicans, women said: all rape is forcible. The bill’s sponsors claimed the offensive phrase had been removed. But according to reports on Wednesday, it was still there. And yet another controversy has followed in this one’s wake, thanks to anti-choice congressman Joe Pitts (PA) who introduced a new facet to yet another awful bill, H.R. 358. This new provision would allow emergency room and other hospital and health personnel to refuse emergency care rather than perform abortion procedures they disagree with. As Dante Atkins at Daily Kos writes, “This modification is simple: it would allow hospitals to make a ‘decision of conscience’ to let women die.” Yes, you heard that right. Jill Filipovic at Feministe points out the irony that when hospitals refuse life-saving abortions to women, the fetus often dies along with her. So, she writes, “the entire purpose of this bill is to allow ideologues to refuse necessary, life-saving care to patients, if those patients happen to be pregnant.” Read on…
Continue reading …It’s Academy Awards weekend, so in anticipation of Sunday’s ceremony, Claudia Puig offers up her choices for who should win—and who actually will win—in USA Today : Best Picture : “Despite its superb performances, brilliant direction, sharp writing, and exquisitely complex, if not always likable, lead character,” The Social Network…
Continue reading …With Sprint starting up its Windows Phone 7 adventure on March 20th with the HTC Arrive , Verizon is now said to be matching its CDMA competitor with its own offering, the HTC 7 Trophy . We already knew this particular handset would be coming to this particular network in ” early 2011 ,” but now WinRumors has narrowed that down to a launch at some point in late March. Verizon’s announcement is expected as early as February 28th, this coming Monday, and we’re hearing the NoDo update — the one with copy and paste — should be preloaded on the device from the start. Should this solid-sounding rumor bear out as foretold, Microsoft should finally be on all US carriers by the start of April. [Thanks, Mike] Windows Phone 7 coming to Verizon in March, starting with HTC 7 Trophy? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …That’s right human beings — it’s happening again! The Engadget crew is getting together their best party outfits and shipping out west for another installment of our fabulous reader meetups. Our last event in NYC drew loads of people and was an all around blast, and the San Francisco installment is sure to be just as explosive (or maybe more? c’mon… show us what you’ve got). This time around we’re partnering with Sprint , as well as Sony PlayStation , Motorola , HP , Roku , Samsung , VUDU , RIM , Sling , Sonos , HTC , Corning , Sphero , OnLive , Plantronics , Snapstick, and more to bring you a night of gadget geeking , delicious foodstuffs , and some awesome music (provided by none other than our podcast producer, Trent Wolbe). Also, a whole mess of the Engadget editors will be on hand to entertain and inform, so if you have any pressing questions — jot them down! And did we mention there will be tons of serious giveaways for people in attendance ? Because there will be. You seriously don’t want to sleep on this. For instance, one lucky attendee to the event will walk away with a super limited edition gold Xoom (being gifted to this year’s Oscar nominees). Check out an image and info after the break! The all ages shindig will take place tonight, February 25 at City View at The Metreon , which is located conveniently in downtown SF. If you’re a nerd in the city, you most likely already know what we’re talking about. The doors will open at 6:30PM , and capacity is limited to 1200 people — so if you want to get inside, get there early! Continue reading Engadget reader meetup tonight in San Francisco at 6:30PM PST! Win a limited edition gold Xoom! Engadget reader meetup tonight in San Francisco at 6:30PM PST! Win a limited edition gold Xoom! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Change is sweeping across the Middle East, and you can bet al-Qaeda is grinding its teeth over it. Why? “Because Jihadists have played no role whatsoever in the great revolution,” writes Yassin Musharbash for Der Spiegel . The uprisings have exposed the fact that, “contrary to the propaganda they have been…
Continue reading …Photo Credit: Lee Coursey , via Flickr Creative Commons Attribution License . So you say you don’t have a green thumb. You kill every plant you try to grow, including the so-called “unkillable” plants that everyone else on the planet seems to have no problem with. Or you’re really busy, and you don’t think you have the time to grow a garden. Surprise: you can grow a perfectly respectable vegetable garden (in the ground or in containers) and eat fresh food from your own yard or balcony all summer long. It’s just a mat… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …SOBE Wine and Food Festival: Tim Love and John Besh discuss authentic regional cuisine
Continue reading …A college student from Saudi Arabia accused of buying chemicals online as part of a plan to blow up key US targets, including the home of former President George W. Bush, appeared in federal court in Texas on Friday. (Feb. 25)
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