Apple iPad2 Coming to India This Month!

Apple does treat India as a dumping ground and while the freshly brewed iPad2 is available for shipping since March 11th (worldwide, though not in India), Apple earlier dropped the price of iPad in India.

And the fresh update is that Apple has discontinued iPad in India and is launching iPad2 this month.

iPad2 in India

To give you certain context, I have spoken to all the Apple retailers in NCR region (context: PowerPlug Contest winner gets an iPad and we announced our first winner!); surprisingly none of the retailers have an iPad. As I write this, I don’t even see an option to buy the device online (Flikart mentions Permanently discontinued].

Signs of iPad2 Coming to India

- The Apple homepage.

Apple doesn’t market a product in a geography unless the product is available or will be available in the near-term. While Apple is showcasing iPad2 on its India homepage ever since the product was launched, the most convincing answer came from one of the Apple retailer.

- First generation iPad Inventory

Like I said, the iPad is just not available right now (WiFi+3G/64GB is available though). I asked Apple retailers on the expected iPad2 availability and one of the iStore person informed me that iPad2 is coming to India in the month of April (or max, May) and hence, the inventory crunch for iPad (first generation).

As per the retailer, Apple has now stopped sending iPad shipments and the first generation iPad is permanently discontinued.

Can Apple Ignore The Indian Market?

Not anymore. With the launch of 3G services, India holds a lot of promise and Apple cannot afford to ignore the Indian market anymore. Expect Indian consumers and SMEs to hog on tablets and drive the data usage.

The bigger question however is the pricing part. What do you think should be the price of iPad2 in India? Do you expect it to be same as iPad?

Who will be the loser? Samsung Galaxy Tab? (read: Samsung slashes price of Galaxy Tab in India, matches with iPad).

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How To Protect Your Brand Name [Legal Resources]

Investing your time and money to build a particular brand and seeing the same brand name being used by another, robbing you of your hard earned brand reputation is not an agreeable state of affairs. Many a time, trademark owners end up in protracted litigation because when the time was right, they did not protect their brand name. Protection of brand name is not a difficult task. A few simple steps, as explained below and you would have the much-needed legal protection to your brand name.

Step 1: Trademark Search

Many entrepreneurs do not comprehend the importance of a trademark search. Having a unique brand name in mind is not good enough reason to avoid a trademark search. Trademark search helps you to know if there are similar trademarks available and it gives you a fair picture of where your trademark stands- sometimes, it also gives you a forewarning of the possibility of trademark litigation. Why waste your money in time-consuming trademark litigation later when you can choose to avoid it in the first place?

Step 2: Filing Trademark Application

After you are sure that your chosen brand name is not listed in the Trademark Registry, you can opt for registering the same. The first step is to file a trademark application at the Registry. Now-a-days, filing is mostly done online. Once the application is filed, an official receipt is immediately issued for future reference.

Step 3: Examination

After a trademark application is filed, it is examined by the Examiner for any discrepancies. The examination might take around 12-18months. The Examiner might accept the trademark absolutely, conditionally or object.

If accepted unconditionally, the Trademark gets published in the Trademark Journal. If not accepted unconditionally, the conditions to be fulfilled or the objections would be mentioned in the Report and a month’s time would be given to fulfill the conditions or response to the objections.

Once such Response is accepted, the Trademark is published in the Trademark Journal. If the Response is not accepted, one can request for a hearing. If in the hearing, the Examiner feels that the trademark should be allowed registration, it proceeds for publication in the Trademark Journal.

Step 4: Publication

The step of publication is incorporated in the Trademark procedure so that anyone who objects to the registering of the trademark has the opportunity to oppose the same. If, after 3months from publication there is no opposition, the trademark proceeds for registration. Incase there is opposition; there is a fair hearing and decision is given by the Registrar.

Step 5: Registration Certificate

Once the trademark proceeds for registration, following publication, a registration certificate under the seal of the Trademark Office is handed over to the Trademark owner.

Step 6: Renewal

The trademark can be renewed perpetually after every 10 years. Hence, your brand name can be protected perpetually.

As seen from the above, trademark procedure does not require much effort. It is a simple procedure but one which is nonetheless very important in order to protect your brand name. There are various IP firms that can help you with the entire process of registration without you worrying about deadlines and responses. Hence, understand the power of your brand name and take steps in protecting it today.

[Guest article contributed by Priyanka Gogoi, Trademark Attorney at Intepat IP Services Pvt Ltd, [http://www.intepat.com], Bangalore.]

Also see:

• Working On Your Startup In Stealth-mode While Being Employed? Know the Legal Side of It.
• Is My Product Infringing On Others Patents?
• How To Hire A Corporate Lawyer [7 Tips]
• How Long Does it Take to Get a Patent? [A Comparative Study]
• What Can Be Patented And What Cannot Be Patented? [Legal Resource for Startups]

» More Legal Resources For Startups.

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SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Donates $120 million In Quake Aid, Live On Ustream

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son is known to like to think big, and the announcement he made today is no exception: Son said that he will donate a total of 10 billion yen ($120 million) of his personal money to the victims of the quake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11.

Son made the promise on a program that was livestreamed on Ustream earlier today (Sunday) Japanese time. He also said he is ready to donate the rest of the compensation he receives from his company – every year, until he retires. SoftBank itself will donate 1 billion yen, in addition to many other things to support the victims of the disaster.

Among Japan’s web entrepreneurs, Son is in good company: Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani, for example, pledged to personally donate 1 billion yen earlier – but Son was the most generous of them all so far.

Son founded SoftBank in 1981 and is 53 years old. According to Forbes, he is worth $8.1 billion.

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Best of the Week–Google Analytics Removes J&K, AP From India Map

We announced our first PowerPlug winner, VisualWebsiteOptimizer and the contest is now open for April Month [application form].

Best of the week (ending April 3rd)

• 11 Entrepreneurial Advice [Don’t be Marc Zuckerberg. Be your ‘Ownbook’]
• Bulk SMS Banned For Cricket World Cup [Business Vs. Politics]
• Nokia’s Open Letter to Developers [What About Symbian?]
• Former President Abdul Kalam Launches Machine Translation System
• Track Your (Fluctuating) Heart Beat This World Cup [Mobile App]
• Google Does What Pak and China Couldn’t – Kicks J&K and Arunachal Pradesh Out of India

India Map on Google Analytics Product

Startups/Entrepreneurship

• Inter-Xect : A Real Time Location Sensing Search Engine
• App Developer : How Independent Is Your Business?
• How To Select Keywords For SEO? [Marketing Tips For Startups]
• 42 Inspirational Quotes From Sehwag [I never look back]
• Interesting Web Apps Round Up – Throw Eggs At Teachers, Get Internships, Get Jobs
• Angels in the Crowd–Is Crowdfunding The Next Wave?
• authorStream (Re)Launches Premium Services – Goes Aggressive Against SlideShare
• SEM Tips for Startups/SMEs [3 Mistakes To Avoid]
• Games2win secures $6 million Series B Funding

April Fool Pranks

Oh well, we played some pranks and few media companies took it so seriously!

• OMG This Is BIG – Twitter Trends Hack Finally Revealed
• Bihar to Get A Dedicated Internet Ministry – First Ever In The World
• Twitter Trends Hacked In India – Make Anything Trend With A Single Tweet

Online/Telecom Industry

• Zune Marketplace Launched in India
• Google Launches Transit for Mumbai [BEST Buses and Local Trains]
• Digital Divide in India Worst Among The BRIC Countries [We Are At Extreme Risk]
• Idea Launches App Store
• Near Field Communication: Is This The Next Big Thing in Wireless Industry?

Gadgethon

• Zune Marketplace Launched in India
• Tata Pixel–The Next Generation “Zero Turn” Car
• Motorola MILESTONE 2 Available in India For Rs. 21K
• HCL Launches Android Tablet in India

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Students Awarded By SPH Magazines For Fresh Digital Ideas In Ignite

Singapore Press Holdings Magazines (SPHM) held a digital crowd-sourcing competition together with Singapore Computer Society (SCS) Interactive Digital Media and Student Chapters called Ignite 2010. The competition’s deadline was 31st Dec 2010 but the award ceremony was held just two days ago. Ignite 2010 called on tertiary students to submit fresh ideas for digitizing SPHM’s publications. We look here at some of the winning teams.

As one of the judges from SCS, I witnessed the submission of many interesting ideas from GPS fashion finder, augmented reality watches, iPad travel journals, mobile gadget finders, to digital home planners. The top three prizes were awarded on 1st April at SPH Auditorium in Genting Lane.

Team DustByte from Nanyang Polytechnic won the contest with a droid designer for Home and Decor Magazine that incorporated QR Codes and features similar to augmented reality.

DustByte was overall winner and also winner of the special Sony Ericsson Android prize.

Besides their top prize of a Canon IXUS 300 HS and MSI U135DX netbook each, DustByte members also won a brand new Sony Ericsson Arc phone each.

Team NPkodan from Ngee Ann Polytechnic won 1st Runner-up for their Home and Decor online portal submission which includes an online marketplace and online home designer amongst many new ideas.

Team NPkodan making a passionate presentation.

Team Paranormal from Ngee Ann Polytechnic won 2nd Runner-up for their wedding portal idea for Her World Brides. One of the interesting ideas, besides online wedding planning, was for online e-Packets.

If these students have their ideas commercialized, you will soon be able to receive e-packets for your wedding.

There were many other great ideas submitted and it’d be interesting to see SPHM commercialize and implement some of these ideas as they power ahead in the digital age.

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Bukupe: Might A Book Curation Site Be Alternative To Skim-Reading?

City dwellers are busy every day.   They don’t have much time for reading books.   E-books make you possible to enjoy reading without stopping by at bookstores.   Skim reading, speed reading, anything else?

Bukupe[J], named after ‘book encyclopedia’, just unveiled a book curation service on Friday, which allows you to write abstracts for books you’ve read and share them with other users online.   If someone purchases any book via your abstracts, Amazon Affiliate rewards will be given to you.   Since next month, you will be also able to profit from pay-per-click ads placed on your abstract pages.

The company organizes a book club twice a month, where a popular book author is invited as a guest reader and presenter.  Their first club is planned to take place in Sangen-jaya, Tokyo next Saturday.

Similar to the service, in 2009, Asiajin co-founder Akky introduced a service for recording and sharing your book reading experiences via Twitter, which is called Yonda4[J] (Japanese) or I’vread (English).

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And The Worldcup Winner Is..[Announcing the PowerPlug Winner!]

In the midst of World cup final match, we are glad to announce the result of final match between the PowerPlugs, the most awesome startup focused contest in India.

Do You Have It In You?

We earlier shared the 6 finalists and each one of them have a unique differentiator – they all have a great product, revenue focused and cater to a niche segment.

A Quick Recap of 6 Finalists

• Onze
• HirePlug
• VisualWebSiteOptimizer
• Ayojak
• Zipdial and
• Ohana Media

And the winner is?

Well, it was a tough choice. We spent a good amount of time with each and every finalist and even before that, we asked them a few candid questions (read: tough) about their business, the market landscape, understanding of competition etc. And one company that came out as a true definition of PowerPlug is..

Well, first how do we define PowerPlug?

To keep it candid, PowerPlug is a startup that inspires others (to kick ass! to go beyond the norm). PowerPlug isn’t about a startup raising fund etc etc – it’s about a company being the underdog and creating a business that delivers immense value.

Inspiration is the keyword here and a startup that we believe defines the PowerPlug is..

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GMO-VP Launches “F-Commerce” Fund And Invests In Platform Developer

On Friday, GMO Venture Partners[J], an investment arm of Shibuya-based web juggernaut GMO Internet Group, launched a private equity fund specializing in investing in start-ups who are developing e-commerce and ad services to be provided on the Facebook platform (a.k.a. F-commerce), which is called Social Ad & Commerce Technology Fund.   It has a JPY57M(=USD670,000) volume as of its launch and can be grown up to JPY2B(=USD23.8M) in the future.

As their first portfolio, they invested in Aratana, a tech start-up based in Miyazaki, a southern coastal city of the Kyushu Island.  The company has introduced an easy-to-use shopping cart system integrated for Facebook, which is called Social Gateway, and has installed more than 1,000 on-Facebook commerce pages for Japanese SMEs in partnership with social commerce integrators such as Sakuragaoka Works Inc. (previously known as Arcarna)

Example: A “F-commerce” page developed by Aratana for Rice-made cosmetic manufacturer Rice Force.

See Also:

• GMO Co-Launches New Project To Incubate Social App Providers

 

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