Facts About Trademarks You Might Not Have Known You’ve likely heard of trademarks, “words that distinguish one organization from the rest in its niche,” the author says, but you may not have known seven facts about them. Besides the fun fact that trademarks have their roots in the Roman empire, the other six have some bearing for entrepreneurs and businesses looking into establishing their own: you can trademark more than words, such as designs; you cannot trademark descriptive phrases; forming a business entity is not the same as acquiring a trademark; trademarks are distinct from copyrights and patents; your trademark application could be rejected; and finally, trademarks are national rights, which is important if you intend to take your business international. Netflix Avoids Rules Like the Plague. Here’s What It Does Instead In his new book “Great Leaders Have No Rules”, the author (Kevin Kruse) cites Netflix for its success […]

Facebook and Google are finding out that the problem with massive disruption is when landscape gets all churned up it isn’t able to provide a stable foundation until it settles, which can often take several years. Facebook counts nearly ¼ of all people on Earth as users. It has a reach so incomprehensibly big it’s very difficult to fathom. Google is, by far, the world’s largest advertising company with its ubiquitous AdWords ads, 60% of the display ad market through its DoubleClick unit, and a virtual monopoly on searchable online videos with YouTube. More than any other Internet behemoths, Facebook and Google are the biggest beneficiaries of the shift in ad revenue from traditional media sources like television, magazines, and newspapers. Together, they have become the gatekeepers of the Internet and thus the duopolistic sources of most people’s information. In recent years, stock values for both companies have surged, matched […]

This week, October 26, 2017 to be precise, the universe changed forever. A new era started and our way of life as labour officially started its end phase. All eras start with a moment in time when something happened that changed our perspectives so thoroughly we would never understand the world around us the same way again. As noted by British historian James Burke, there are days that change the universe as we know it. Earlier this week, the human race truly entered the Robotics Era. Sophia, a robot designed and developed by Hong Kong based Hanson Robotics, was granted legal citizenship by Saudi Arabia, a sovereign state. The implications are incredible, so much so that this is the leading edge of a wave that will alter our ideas about everything we do as a society. Sophia is very life like, so much so it could be mistaken for a […]

The news broke late enough in the day that civic leaders across North America called in their economic development staff for emergency meetings. Amazon announced yesterday it was seeking a second headquarters in North America and any city with a planning department suddenly wanted in on the mega growth promised by the monolithic Internet retailer. An Amazon expansion doesn’t just bring jobs; it creates its own economic sector and reshapes large parts of the city and region. Toronto is considered among the most likely to be selected. To run a Seattle-sized headquarters and fulfilment center, Amazon will need somewhere near 50,000 workers with skill-sets ranging from white color corporate executives, mathematical virtuosos, and robotics experts to warehouse foremen, forklift operators, stock pickers, and an even larger fleet of truck drivers. That’s a lot of people with a lot of different types of education, training, and certification. Toronto is easily able […]