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April 2017
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After Bill Gates Backs Open Access, Steve Ballmer Discovers The Joys Of Open Data

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A few months ago, we noted that the Gates Foundation has emerged as one of the leaders in requiring the research that it funds to be released as open access and open data -- an interesting application of the money that Bill Gates made from closed-source software. Now it seems that his successor as Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, has had a similar epiphany about openness. Back in 2001, Ballmer famously called GNU/Linux "a cancer". Although he later softened his views on software somewhat, that was largely because he optimistically claimed that the threat to Microsoft from free software was "in the rearview mirror". Not really: today, the Linux-based Android has almost two orders of magnitude more market share than Windows Phone. However, there's one area of openness that Ballmer seems to have embraced whole-heartedly for his new project USAFacts, which launched this week -- open data:

USAFacts is a new data-driven portrait of the American population, our government's finances, and government's impact on society. We are a non-partisan, not-for-profit civic initiative and have no political agenda or commercial motive. We provide this information as a free public service and are committed to maintaining and expanding it in the future.We rely exclusively on publicly available government data sources. We don't make judgments or prescribe specific policies. Whether government money is spent wisely or not, whether our quality of life is improving or getting worse -- that's for you to decide. We hope to spur serious, reasoned, and informed debate on the purpose and functions of government. Such debate is vital to our democracy. We hope that USAFacts will make a modest contribution toward building consensus and finding solutions.
In addition to allowing a wide range of public data sets to be queried using a site-specific search engine, USAFacts also offers synoptic views:
an annual report, a summary report, and a "10-K" modeled on the document public companies submit annually to the SEC for transparency and accountability to their investors.
In an age where "fake news," AKA lies, are common currency, and where the Trump administration is making government more, not less, opaque, Ballmer's philanthropic, fact-based endeavor is particularly welcome. It's also nice to see him following Gates and implicitly acknowledging that open is more powerful than closed.Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and +glynmoody on Google+

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posted at: 12:00am on 22-Apr-2017
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British Columbia Winery Has Trademark Opposed By Pre-Packaged Foods Company For Some Reason

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I have personally made something of a crusade as of late out of my position that the world's trademark offices need to be more nuanced when it comes to the alcohol industry. Far too many disputes have arisen recently between beer breweries, wineries, and spirit-makers, when anyone with a base understanding of those industries realizes how separate they actually are, rendering the potential for customer confusion a moot argument. To the layperson less familiar with both the purpose and nuanced aspects of trademark law, however, this position can require some convincing.That shouldn't be the case for a recent dispute between a winery and a pre-packaged foods maker, however, because this dispute is between two completely different marketplaces.

The 40 Knots Winery in Comox, B.C., first applied to trademark Ziggy — named both for the German grapes from which it's made and for the family's whippet dog — in March 2015. The trademark was approved by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office in December 2015, and 40 Knots started rolling out its advertising campaign soon after.But late last year, Loblaw Inc. officially opposed the trademark, noting that Ziggy's is the brand name of several Loblaw products, most notably deli meats and prepackaged meals, since 1971.
Herman-Craig goes on to note the time and capital she spent in naming and branding her winery. A Loblaw spokesperson, meanwhile, trotted out every protectionist's favorite excuse for these types of overbearing actions, claiming that the company had no choice but to oppose the trademark if there was a chance of customer confusion.But that's not true, as is so often the case. Wine and pre-packaged foods operate in different marketplaces, even if they are both sold in actual food markets. Customers, for one, are unlikely to be confused by the packaging of the other due to the shared name, particularly given that the trade dress of these two companies are otherwise vastly distinct. It seems that Herman-Craig actually did everything right when naming her winery, including researching the name to make sure her actual competition wasn't already using it.
"We researched to make sure nobody was using Ziggy as a wine," she said. "And for trademarks, you trademark your product that you're manufacturing and selling."She said her lawyer is confident 40 Knots has a solid case, and she plans to fight the supermarket giant for the rights to the name.
In that case, here's hoping the courts can knock this softball out of the park, because it's pretty obvious that there is little if any chance of confusion between a winery and a packaged food maker.

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posted at: 12:00am on 22-Apr-2017
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