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December 2021
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The Papas and the Pappas: Burger Joint Rebrands Over Trademark Dispute

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We're going to keep repeating this until it becomes common knowledge: trademark law is designed to keep the public from being confused as to the source of a good or service, not as some mechanism for businesses to lock up language in a competitive marketplace. In other words, if there is no risk of customer confusion, trademark laws very rarely come into play in terms of disputes or infringement.Which brings us to Papa's Burgers in Texas and its announcement that it will be changing its name and branding.

So, a company that has existed as Papa's Burgers for 8 years is changing its name due to a C&D notice. So what's going on here? Well, the company decided to finally get around to trademarking its name but was advised by its counsel that there was another large restaurant group that had a similar name. That company was Pappas Restaurants, which operates a wide swath of venues, such as Pappas Bros. Steakhouse, Pappas Seafood House, and, yes, Pappas Burger.Due to the that input from counsel, Papa's Burgers owner Robert Walker sent a letter to Pappas Restaurants explaining his respect for their business and his intention to trademark his business name. Kind of a nice thing to do. His reward for that was receiving the C&D notice.
Counsel advised Walker that he can fight the trademark since it's a one-letter difference and a different city, but that it could be very costly - upwards of $25,000 just to start the process.The second option is to rebrand. A difficult decision Walker said, because the restaurant has already received so many public accolades in the nearly 9 years it's been open.
Note that last bit: Papa's Burgers has been operating for 9 years. The C&D notice sent by Pappas Restaurants doesn't say that the company should not use the name in new restaurants; it insists it stops using its name entirely. Except surely Pappas Restaurants would have already heard about all of this and sent a C&D long ago if there was any reason to think there would be public confusion here. And, yet, the company only fired off a C&D once Walker informed them that his business exists and that he planned to file for a trademark. That sure seems to indicate that any worry about customer confusion is unwarranted, no?Unfortunately, that is now a moot point. Papa's Burgers is changing its name as a result of all of this. Because trademark bullying works.

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posted at: 12:00am on 15-Dec-2021
path: /Policy | permalink | edit (requires password)

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Banks, ISPs Increasingly Embrace 'Voice Print' Authentication Despite Growing Security Risk

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While it's certainly possible to sometimes do biometrics well, a long line of companies frequently... don't. Voice print authentication is particularly shaky, especially given the rise of inexpensive voice deepfake technology. But, much like the continued use of text-message two-factor authentication (which is increasingly shown to not be secure), it apparently doesn't matter to a long list of companies.Banks and telecom giants alike have started embracing voice authentication tech at significant scale despite the added threat to user privacy and security. And they're increasingly collecting user "voice print" data without any way to opt out:

"despite multiple high-profile cases of scammers successfully stealing money by impersonating people via deepfake audio, big banks and ISPs are rolling out voice-based authentication at scale. The worst offender that I could find is Chase. There is no opt in. There doesn't even appear to be a formal way to opt out! There is literally no way for me to call my bank without my voice being fingerprinted without my consent."
The U.S. has generally been extremely lax on privacy and security legislation and oversight, generally opting for baseline requirements that companies at least be transparent about their security and privacy practices, and provide users with working opt out tools. But time and time again neither are really adhered to. Eventually our lack of any meaningful privacy rules for the internet era will culminate in a privacy scandal that makes past scandals look like a grade school picnic. And with companies increasingly prioritizing convenience and simplicity over security and common sense, that day could arrive sooner than we think.The rush toward voice authentication tech is particularly problematic given the quick rise of automated deepfake systems and the growing trove of user voice data available online. With parades of online creators, and smart televisions and other gadgets hoovering up voice data (and frequently failing to secure or encrypt it), availability of this data is ballooning. As are examples where faking a user's voice has been used for significant thefts. What happens when voice print authentication is adopted at scale, and exploitation of that trend becomes automated by robocall scammers already running amok? Nothing good.Using voice authentication to secure your finances (or much of anything notable) is, at its base, already very much a hit or miss proposition:
If you figure voice deepfake tech will only get cheaper and better over time, you can also figure replacing passwords and pins with voice authentication isn't a great idea in a country already drowning in robocall scams. Yet we're apparently doing it anyway:
"Again, society must adjust to the following reality: It's become easy for anyone to spoof the voices of others who have public recordings of them talking (very common). Therefore, companies (especially banks) should not be using this as a @#%!ing way to log into accounts! You would think this is SIMPLE-enough for corporate America to understand, but alas, here we are."
At the very least informed users should have the ability to opt out of voice data collection, yet in many cases they can't even do that. It's yet another example of why the nation needs at least some kind of baseline privacy rules that at an extreme minimum mandates that both data collection and security options should be transparent, and users should always retain opt out control. Baseline privacy legislation should also include meaningful penalties and accountability for the very long line of companies that view consumer privacy and security as an annoying afterthought.Given this would cost a large number of politically powerful industries money we're not going to do any of that. Instead, we're going to continue to embrace the current paradigm: a few badly crafted state privacy proposals and a generalized apathy on the federal level. Surely that will work out well, right?

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posted at: 12:00am on 15-Dec-2021
path: /Policy | permalink | edit (requires password)

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