CTA let lapse its 10-year-old trademark to the CEA logo, and the Patent and Trademark Office canceled the registration Friday, agency records show. CTA didn’t respond by the Sept. 17 deadline to PTO’s “courtesy reminder” that the trademark would soon be up for renewal. Two other active CEA trademarks are due to expire in 2023 and 2025, say PTO records. CEA applied for them not long before changing its name to CTA in November 2015 (see 1511110002). PTO granted two trademark registrations May 28, one for the full Consumer Technology Association name, the other for the CTA initials.
ProSource added four CI and three Power level members, including the 15-company Bravas group, in Q3, said CEO Dave Workman. Combined, the new members add more than $100 million in new retail revenue for the group, Workman said. The four CI members are Entertainment Design Group, Las Vegas; Protection by Design, Williamsburg, Virginia; Smart Automation Solutions, Gaithersburg, Maryland; and Soundwave, Ketchum, Idaho. Power members are Bravas, Overland Park, Kansas; DAVE Digital Audio Visual Environments, Rochester, New York; and Digitech Custom Audio & Video, Carmel, Indiana. Digitech is the only Bravas company not previously part of ProSource. The buying group recently completed strategic planning meetings in Asia with key audio vendor partners including Harman, Sony and Sound United, it said Tuesday.
Rakuten and the American Libraries Association said readers can borrow the first e-book selection of the Libraries Transform Book Pick, their digital reading program. Through Oct. 21, consumers can borrow an e-book copy of After the Flood by Kassandra Montag at their public libraries without waitlists or holds, they said Monday. Readers need a library card and OverDrive’s free Libby app to download and read the book and to discuss it via social media.
Facebook should forgo plans to deploy end-to-end encryption across its messaging services unless it can ensure user safety isn’t compromised and includes lawful police access to content, Attorney General William Barr reportedly plans to write the company with officials from the U.K. and Australia. Barr prepared the draft letter to Facebook with U.K. Secretary of State for the Home Department Priti Patel, Australian Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton and acting U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan. The draft cites Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s March 6 post acknowledging “real safety concerns to address before we can implement end-to-end encryption across all our messaging services.” The government officials noted Zuckerberg said the company has a “responsibility to work with law enforcement and to help prevent” child sexual exploitation, terrorism and extortion. The company and department didn’t comment.
CTA formed a 40-member “diversity and inclusion” working group to “create greater access and mobility for traditionally underrepresented communities,” said the association Thursday. The working group’s mission statement includes positioning the consumer tech industry “as a leading contributor in creating a diverse and inclusive tech ecosystem,” said CTA. Two venture firms, Rethink Impact and Founders First Capital Partners, will receive undisclosed money from CTA’s $10 million diversity and inclusion war chest for their track records of investing in women, ethnic minorities, veterans and other underserved demographics, said the association.
A series of 17 ProSource “town hall dinners” begins Tuesday in Las Vegas and concludes with an Oct. 30 stop in Phoenix, said the buying group Monday. Sponsored by ProSource vendors, the events give members the chance to network locally with others “in a roundtable format that stimulates conversations centered on key topics of business,” it said.
Not being able to come to a carriage agreement by 5 p.m. Sept. 27 with AT&T could mean 136 Sinclair-owned local stations and the Tennis Channel going dark on DirecTV, AT&T Now (formerly DirecTV Now) and U-verse in 86 markets, Sinclair said Friday. It said AT&T was at fault and it had "little optimism" of reaching a deal by the expiration of the current carriage agreement.
Online platforms should screen their employees for any association with hate groups, advocates wrote Facebook, Google and Twitter executives Tuesday. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Color of Change, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Muslim Advocates and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund signed. They also urged “strong corporate accountability,” identifying executives responsible for content decisions and civil rights audits.
OK'ing Google Fiber waivers for some set-top box functions (see 1905140066), an FCC Media Bureau docket 12-108 order Monday encouraged expedited implementation of an accessibility solution. The bureau's unlikely to extend waiver for the four functions "absent compelling circumstances."
Integra is hosting a series of tech talks at its CEDIA Expo booth at 10 a.m. each day Sept. 12-14. New partners and discussions are to start every 30 minutes. Participants include DTS and IMAX, discussing what goes into audio and video production for Imax Enhanced; THX on how it helps integrators differentiate installations; Dolby discussing its latest surround technology and other presentations by Crestron, Josh.ai, URC and Global Cache.