rickboyce (u/rickboyce)

rickboyce commented on Threads Software Limited gives Meta 30 days to stop using the name Threads businesswire.com/news/hom... · Posted by u/ortusdux

anigbrowl · 2 years ago

The fact that Meta removed Threads Software from FB implies that Meta itself considered there to be a likelihood of confusion between the two. They should lose hard here.

rickboyce · 2 years ago

I agree that does seem to be something of a smoking gun.

And it’s not without precedent to secure an injunction against as US tech company launching a new service - gmail was known as googlemail in the UK and some European countries for several years owing to a trademark dispute (https://www.theguardian.com/media/pda/2010/may/04/digital-me...)

But sadly a lot of trademark and copyright cases come down to who has the bigger pile of cash behind them.

rickboyce commented on Threads Software Limited gives Meta 30 days to stop using the name Threads businesswire.com/news/hom... · Posted by u/ortusdux

paulddraper · 2 years ago

> Threads - an intelligent message hub provided by Threads Software Limited - was conceived and trademarked in 2012 by JPY Ltd. The service has been actively promoted worldwide since 2014.

> From April 2023, Meta’s lawyers made four offers to purchase the domain ‘threads.app’ from Threads Software Ltd. Every offer was declined. It was made clear to Meta’s Instagram that the domain was not for sale.

> In July 2023, Meta’s Instagram announced its ‘threads’ social media platform and removed Threads Software Limited from its Facebook platform.

> Threads is a Cloud-based service that captures, transcribes, and organises all of a company’s digital messages (emails and phone calls) into one easily searchable database.

See also:

https://threads.cloud/

https://www.techspot.com/news/100666-meta-given-30-days-ceas...

Not familiar with UK trademarks. Is there any way that Meta doesn't lose/settle this?

rickboyce · 2 years ago

(Not a lawyer, but have gained some working knowledge of UK trademarks.)

I don’t think this is totally clean cut. UK trademarks are registered against specific classes and those classes are categorised in families of goods and services.

A quick search suggests that this company holds the trademark for the word ‘Threads’ for class 9 (goods) and class 42 (services).

You can read the definitions somewhere by searching on gov.uk (or somewhere like https://www.russell-cooke.co.uk/media/bmin5fo0/goods_and_ser... [pdf]).

Meta will almost certainly make the argument that they are not operating in these classes or overlapping with the categories listed for this trademark. Class 42 does not seem to apply here, and for class 9 the Thread trademark lists ‘computer software, software and apparatus for the extraction of business information and knowledge’ which may not overlap.

Meta couldn’t also trademark Threads under class 9 (can’t trademark the same word twice in the same class) but just because they can’t secure the trademark does not automatically mean they are infringing on the existing use.

They could argue that their use of Threads as a trademark falls solely within something like class 38: Telecommunications services; chat room services; portal services; e-mail services; providing user access to the Internet; radio and television broadcasting.

If they could land this then there is no claim against them - their use can coexist with trademark’s registered in different classes.

For an app which can be downloaded getting around class 9 could be difficult - so whether they could land and make this stick is far from clear, but Meta have the resources to explore this indefinitely where as the pre-existing user making the complaint may not be able to afford the legal costs to stay the course.

Trademarks are messy and subjective and there is much scope for interpretation - even a seemly clear-cut case is anything but predictable.

rickboyce commented on Iconic tree at Hadrian's Wall's 'Sycamore Gap' has been 'felled' hexham-courant.co.uk/news... · Posted by u/eirikurh

jfengel · 2 years ago

I was trying to figure out the significance of this tree. It is alongside the wall but does not date to its construction, or anywhere near.

It is several hundred years old, which is certainly remarkable though far from unique. It seems to be known primarily for being picturesque, which is less about the tree itself and more for being located in an interesting gap in the hills. It shows up in a number of movies, and as far as I can tell, its being really famous only dates to the 1990s.

I don't mean to diminish this. It was a much-beloved icon destroyed in senseless cruelty. I was just trying to put it into context for myself. Its proximity to the much older icon is largely coincidental.

rickboyce · 2 years ago

Us Brits are very passionate about lovely trees!

I’ve walked along that part of Hadrian’s Wall and stopped at that tree a number of times and it truly was a beautiful spot with real impact.

I don’t think there is any rational significance to the tree - it was just an ancient beautiful tree, standing alone in a very dramatic landscape. A tree that many folks paused to rest at and admire as they walked along Hadrian’s wall (itself steeped in history).

rickboyce commented on Proposed US Rule for Portable Generators Will Save Thousands of Lives and $1B/Yr cpsc.gov/About-CPSC/Commi... · Posted by u/walterbell

jjeaff · 2 years ago

That's for a whole unit with batteries and some other components. I'm not sure if that means that the sensor itself only lasts 5-7 years.

rickboyce · 2 years ago

It’s the sensors themselves that have a limited life - the units that have a fixed battery have a battery life that exceeds the sensors useful life.

The common / low cost carbon monoxide detectors use a chemical reaction (either a fuel cell or one of a few reactions that produce a colour change in the presence of CO) - the chemistry degrades with time and exposure causing the sensitivity to drop off over time.

I’m not sure how much of a safety margin they have (like could it still detect dangerous levels at 2x it’s design life or something) but a quality generator would have a life of several times that of a CO sensor at least so replacement will definitely/hopefully be a design consideration.

rickboyce commented on Single rogue flight plan caused air traffic control meltdown telegraph.co.uk/news/2023... · Posted by u/rickboyce

rickboyce · 2 years ago

Quote from the UK’s air traffic controller’s CEO particularly caught me eye - this apparently isn’t some ancient component:

“Rolfe has been asked about delays to investments in new systems.

He said Nats invests £100m a year, and the piece of the system that failed was replaced only five years ago.”

rickboyce commented on Why does the USA use 110V and UK use 230-240V? (2014) electronics.stackexchange... · Posted by u/dilawar

sph · 2 years ago

I'm struggling to understand how the British grid works, as an Italian transplated to UK. IIRC in Italy most residential circuit breakers have a limit of 3.3 kW, so it's pretty easy to trip it with a few appliances running, and we don't even use electric kettles that much.

Yet in Britain, with a 3 kW kettle, I've never managed to trip it, with a combination of laundry machine, electric oven, microwave, dishwasher. Is there no circuit breaker limit?

rickboyce · 2 years ago

If you want a deep dive this video made by a British electrician is worth a watch https://youtu.be/hZN6hiGLtrE

In a perfect world a ring circuit is a clever invention - it offers a circuit that can safely deliver about 7.3kW with hardly any more copper than normally could deliver about 4.6kW.

However in practice they have a hidden failure mode - if you break the ring they will carry on working apparently without problem except it’s quite possible that you now have overheating cables in a wall somewhere. In the real world houses are full of changes (both DIY and professional) that inadvertently break the ring and it’s not at all uncommon to see in a house with even modest refurb works having been done.

rickboyce commented on Why does all() return True if the iterable is empty? blog.carlmjohnson.net/pos... · Posted by u/vikrum

rickboyce · 2 years ago

I think the analysis is really interesting, but I suspect it’s quite possible that this behaviour is just a result of optimising the implementation than GVR taking sides in a 2,500 year old philosophical debate.

Both implementations of all() and any() short-circuit by returning as soon as a fasly element in all or a truthy element in any is iterated over.

The origin of these two functions seems to be this post: https://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=106&thread=9819...

Guido makes no comment on empty iterables, but does comment on the final implementation needing to be efficient. It’s possible this behaviour is just the engineering trade off made for a slightly more efficient implementation.

The initial commit of these two functions - https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/96229b191814556622b... - is exactly as Guido’s suggestion, but does include a test case for empty iterables for both functions so we know it wasn’t overlooked.

rickboyce commented on Ask HN: Getting Rid of the Founder? · Posted by u/yxgao

t_fatus · 2 years ago

The first thing I would advise is to be as transparent as possible with the founder, you can't go on like this. Don't go in as the whole team, it'll probably be a hard time for him, you need to break the news but let him time to digest before going into the details. Keep in mind without him you probably won't be working together on this great product.

I see 3 probable outcomes:

- he does not see the situation as you do, but does not want to leave. this would make leaving the company easier for you if your disagreement is too profound.

- he understands the misalignment won't be solve and quit (either by choice or following investors pressure)

- he agrees to try to change things, this will be hard because it won't happen instantly. Your team will need to set checkpoints with dates, which if not met bring you back to the start.

Anyway for your own mental state (and your teammates) you cannot go on like this.

rickboyce · 2 years ago

I think this is sound advice. What I’d add builds on this point:

> he does not see the situation as you do

At the moment you may be lacking the perspective of the founder, perhaps the coaching and input they’ve had from investors and other advisors on the direction of the business. I would go into a conversation with the founder but seek to gain a true understanding of their perspective as much as to emphasise your own point.

> we unanimously felt that the product works, and the team is amazing

It takes more than a working product and an amazing team to make a startup succeed. The product might be amazing but do the unit economics work? Is there a market fit? Does the market fit scale? Is there something that needs to be hit to secure the next round of funding? Maybe you have this info and omitted it for brevity in your post… but if you approach your investors for a dialogue without a complete understanding of this side of the equation I’d say your in for a rough time.

rickboyce commented on Canadian judge says thumbs-up emoji amounts to contract acceptance theglobeandmail.com/canad... · Posted by u/jbeales

leakycap · 2 years ago

Recent Canadian court rulings have made me wonder if I live in an extremely US-system mindset; it is hard to understand the logic here.

The buyer was concerned about this transaction, it seems - they sent a message asking:

“please confirm flax contract”

In response they did not get a contract. They got a thumbs up. What's next, text a thumbs up to a car salesman who is trying to get you to agree to a deal and now you've signed the contract? Contracts have much more in them than a text message could convey. Perhaps I'm being to legalistic, but this is a court matter.

rickboyce · 2 years ago

In legal systems with some basis in English Common Law the idea of an implied contract is fairly common.

Lets I buy some service from you and we sign some one-off contract. The next year I text you ‘same again please’ - you provide the same service to me. A reasonable person would conclude that there is an implied contact to provide the services under the terms perviously agreed. I can’t argue that I don’t have to pay because we didn’t sign a new set of terms.

Or you give me a quote and terms to build a house. If I let you start building it for me (and you can prove that I gave that instruction) there is an implied contract based the proposed terms even if we don’t sign any paperwork.

In the judgement here it seems to be a simpler assertion that the thumbs up in the context of asking about previously sent terms constitutes acceptance.