cloud.IQ raises £250,000 through government innovation competition

Tech City start-up, cloudIQ, has received £250,000 from the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) after winning an SME innovation competition.

The one-year-old firm, which provides cloud based marketing applications, secured the money through the TSB’s Smart Programme for its idea of creating a web-based tool that allows non-technical people to build, publish and monetise web apps that can integrate email, voice, web, social and mobile technologies into innovative services.

The funding will be used for research and development of the tool, known as AppEditor.

James Critchley, CEO and co-founder of cloud.IQ said: “In just 12 months, we have launched a suite of apps for SMEs which have already delivered significant results in helping businesses convert more customers.

“The investment from the Technology Strategy Board provides us with a platform to bring to market a new solution which we believe will have an ever wider reach and impact on the businesses community.”

The government innovation agency launched the award with the aim of finding an innovative idea that that offers significant potential to help stimulate economic growth in the UK.

James Heydari, TSB programme manager, said: “Smart awards support SMEs with high growth ambition and potential. Successful applicants need to show that they have a really innovative idea, addressing a real market need and have the ability to deliver their idea to drive economic growth.”

In 2012, the start-up, which also has offices in Sydney, received £2m in funding from Bridges Ventures.

Over the past 12 months, cloud.IQ has launched a suite of conversion focused apps including callMe, cartRecovery and SmartSMS. The start-up says that its integrated applications help companies of all sizes acquire more customers and build brand loyalty.

Montreal Festival Adds Judd Hirsch's 'The Red Robin' to Competition Slate

TORONTO – The U.S. indie The Red Robin, starring Judd Hirsch and Ryan O’Nan, has been booked into competition at the Montreal World Film Festival.

The psychological thriller from writer-director Michael Z. Wechsler also stars C.S. Lee (Dexter), Jaime Ray Newman, Caroline Lagerfelt and Joseph Lyle Taylor.

In The Red Robin, the Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated Hirsch plays a celebrated psychiatrist specializing in trauma who is rumored to have worked for the CIA during the Cold War.

PHOTOS: Gettysburg 150 Years Later: 17 Films Tackle the Civil War

During a family reunion, one of his adult children accuses Hirsch’s character, now dying, of adopting kids to perform mind-control experiments on them.

Wechsler produced the film with Shawn R. Singh, and Terry Keefe is co-producer.

Executive producer credits go to Jonathan Sanger, Rick Porras, Wendy Herst and Khush Singh.

The Montreal World Film Festival is set to run Aug. 22 to Sept. 2.

 

Apple faces competition for iWatch trademark in Europe

Apple will face competition in Europe for the "iWatch" trademark it has already filed for in Japan, Taiwan and Mexico, because other companies have already registered the name in relevant trademark categories.

Among them is Probendi, an Italian company that is also incorporated in the U.S. In February 2009, Probendi registered the European trademark for iWatch with OHIM, the European Union agency responsible for registering trade marks and designs that are valid in all 28 countries of the E.U.

OHIM
Probendi owns the word mark for "iWatch" and uses it for a mobile phone application that sends real-time audio, video, and location data to an online emergency and security support system that can be used by emergency services, according to a brochure about the product. Daniele Di Salvo, Probendi's director, could not immediately comment on Friday on Apple's trademark filings.

That Probendi owns the word mark in the E.U. doesn't mean that Apple cannot apply for a European "iWatch" trademark, said Margarita Garcia of OHIM's information center. "We are an administrative institution, we do not refuse applications," she said. "We cannot be a party in these battles."

According to an online description of OHIM's procedures, it is up to registrants to defend their trademarks, and for new applicants to demonstrate that already-registered trademarks are not being used.

The owner of a trademark has the obligation to ensure it is used and has to check if others in the same market are using the trademark, Garcia said. When an application is filed for the same class of product, OHIM will send a letter to the trademark owner notifying that a similar trademark has been filed, after which the owner can file an opposition which will be reviewed by OHIM, she added.

In Probendi's case, the trademark is in class 9, which covers apparatus, instruments and media for recording, reproducing, carrying, storing, processing, manipulating, transmitting, broadcasting, retrieving and reproducing music, sounds, images, text, signals, software, information, data and code. It also covers software, instruments and apparatus for the location and navigation of vehicles and personnel; computer application software for mobile phones.

Whether an opposition succeeds depends on the arguments filed, Garcia said. "It is never easy, it is never black and white," adding that anyone can oppose a trademark application within three months after it is published.

Probendi is not the only company in Europe staking a claim on the iWatch name, though. AIO Distribution, a company from the U.K., also filed for a European registration of the trademark in Dec. 2012. In this case, AIO tried to register "iwatch", with a lower case w, in class 9 and also class 38, which covers mobile phones and communications by mobile phones.

AIO's trademark claim hasn't been registered yet, and its application was opposed by the Vlaamse Media Maatschappij (Flemish Media Company, VMM), according to OHIM's records.

VMM has an online portal, iwatch.be, where content from the Flemish television channel VTM can be watched for a fee. The company has registered the "iWatch" trademark in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, according to the records of the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP), which covers the three countries.

A VMM spokeswoman reached on Friday declined to comment on Apple's trademark filings in other countries and wouldn't discuss the opposition of AIO's filing at the OHIM. The company doesn't discuss its strategies, she said.

AIO Distribution could not be reached for comment.

There is another iWatch trademark holder on record at the BOIP too. A private person from the Netherlands, Otto F. Weise, registered "iWatch", "iWatch Phone" and "iWatch Connect" in different categories according to BOIP records.

The trademark iWatch is registered in a category covering jewelry while iWatch Phone and iWatch Connect are registered in a category that among others covers cash registers, calculating machines and data processing equipment.

The situation is much the same in the U.K., where Probendi owns the trademark (because it has an E.U. trademark), records at the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) show. In the U.K., an application for "i_watch" from Turkey in the jewelry category is also pending.

In Germany, a visual iwatch trademark is registered by Matrix Security, records of the German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO) showed. And in June, a Vanessa Hansen, applied for the German word mark "iWatch".

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

Follow me on Twitter @sajilpl

Utah writers invited to enter competition

The deadline for entering the 2013 Utah Original Writing Competition is 5 p.m. Friday, June 28.
The competition identifies and awards Utah writers for works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in the form of short stories, essays, poems, and full-length manuscripts for readers of all ages. Submissions must be original works. They cannot be published or accepted for publication at the time of entry. Manuscripts will be reviewed in a blind process by five to seven judges selected from outside of Utah.
Past award winners have included Utah Poet Laureates. There is no entry fee for the competition, and it is open to all Utah residents.