Paul Gluckman

Samsung applied Jan. 14 to trademark “SmartThings Home Tablet” for commercializing “smart home hubs” in a tablet form factor to connect robotic vacuum cleaners and other home appliances to a wireless network, Patent and Trademark Office records show. The company announced the launch of Samsung Home Hub earlier this month, billing it as a “new way to manage home appliances” via a “tablet-style touchscreen device” that uses AI and SmartThings technology “to understand users’ needs and automatically provide the right solutions” to household tasks. Samsung didn’t comment about its commercial deployment plans for the SmartThings Home Tablet trademark. Samsung bought the SmartThings IoT platform in August 2014, making it part of the Samsung Open Innovation Center (see 1408180053).

Thirteen licensors populate the one-stop patent pool for ATSC 3.0 technologies that MPEG LA launched Thursday, as was expected recently after about three and a half years of development (see 2112100004).

Activision Blizzard’s games "exist on a variety of platforms today, and we plan to continue supporting those communities moving forward," emailed a Microsoft spokesperson Tuesday on buying Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. "The acquisition is about increasing the availability of Activision Blizzard content via more platforms, including mobile." The largest deal in Microsoft’s history will “create a thriving gaming ecosystem” in which content “can more easily reach every gamer across every platform,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on a conference call. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said "mobile is the biggest category of gaming, and it’s an area where we have not had a major presence before."

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. expects the chip industry’s supply chain “to maintain a higher level of inventory” in 2022, compared with “historical” trends, due to “the industry's continued need to ensure supply security,” said CEO C.C. Wei on a Q4 call Thursday. TSMC had Q4 revenue in U.S. dollars of $15.74 billion, up 5.8% sequentially. The U.S. shares closed up 5.3% at $139.19. Though the short-term demand-supply imbalance “may or may not persist, we continue to observe the structural increase in long-term semiconductor demand underpinned by the industry megatrend” of 5G and high-performance computing applications, said Wei. “We also observed the higher silicon content in many end devices, including automotive, PCs, servers, networking and smartphones. As a result, we expect our capacity to remain tight throughout 2022.” The rising deployment of 5G smartphones “will fuel a massive requirement for computation power,” he said.

CTA filed four nearly identical applications Friday to trademark a logo for promoting awareness of consumer radar products and "the importance of such products meeting certain performance standards,” Patent and Trademark Office records show. The proposed trademark consists of the word Ripple, alongside what the applications call a “stylized fish design.” CTA announced Ripple on the opening day of CES 2022 with little fanfare as a new industry standard for radar system development "that will enable hardware and software interoperability for general purpose consumer radar across industrial, automotive and medical applications." A working group formed in 2021 with the participation of Aptiv, Blumio, Ford, Google, Infineon, NXP and Texas Instruments devised the standard to "accelerate the growth of low-power, general purpose radar," said CTA. Ripple's framers envision "a number of possible use cases including non-invasive wellness monitoring, occupancy detection, human activity, and touchless gesture controls," emailed a CTA spokesperson Tuesday. "At this point, we are not planning on having a certification logo for product compliance," he said. The goal of the first release of Ripple's open application programming interface "is to accelerate the growth of applications" by enabling interoperability across various types of radar hardware implementations, he said.

CTA's first in-person CES during the global pandemic drew “well over” 40,000 before the abbreviated show closed Friday after a three-day run, it announced. That's about 23% of the “total verified attendance” at CES 2020, according to that show’s audit report. International visitors made up some 30% of CES 2022's audience, said CTA. Virtually all who commented about low show attendance said they used this to personal advantage, such as enjoying shorter taxi, monorail or concession lines and the ability to engage in deeper conversations with clients, customers and friends they hadn’t seen face to face in two years.

Samsung shares with policymakers “the common goal to enhance cybersecurity” but warns that “a prescriptive, fragmented approach” to legislation on ransomware and other cyberthreats would be “problematic,” Eric Tamarkin, director and senior public policy counsel, told a CES 2022 cybersecurity workshop Friday. “We are taking great strides in industry” on cybersecurity, and “the partnership between government and industry is strong,” said Tamarkin. “We are engaging every day with a number of agencies,” including the FCC and Department of Homeland Security, he said. Through a “whole slew of different public-private partnerships, we are in the trenches every day, working on these challenges together,” he said. The U.S. and its allies need to continue to show “leadership in advanced technology as we have since the end of World War II,” said former Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, now managing director of tech investment bank Allen & Co. “One of the things that gives me hope,” said Hurd, “is that despite the political atmosphere in which we’ve been operating for the last couple of years, when it comes to the threat of China, it’s a bipartisan recognition, it’s a bicameral recognition of that issue.” Hurd endorsed CTA’s decision to move forward with CES 2022 amid the rapid spread of COVID-19's omicron variant. “CES is an example of how we have to continue to figure out how to do things in tough situations,” said Hurd. “This is our new normal. We’re going to have to figure out a way to evolve, get better and grow and work together.” He urged the conference audience in the Las Vegas Convention Center’s North Hall to “give it up for CES for continuing the show and doing this and having us all out.”

CTA President Gary Shapiro, in his state of the industry stump speech Wednesday before a live audience in the Venetian’s Palazzo Ballroom to open CES 2022, dispensed with his customary list of association policy and standards objectives, instead imploring political leaders to help the private sector nurture technology innovation or get out of the tech industry’s way. General Motors CEO Mary Barra, who until two weeks ago was to have taken the same CES keynote stage but withdrew for COVID-19's omicron health and safety reasons (see 2112270040), delivered her hourlong remarks on GM’s electric-vehicle initiatives via video she recorded in an empty Fox Theatre in Detroit.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., is “no longer participating” in CES 2022, nor are Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) or New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R), confirmed a CTA spokesperson Monday. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is still keynoting CES on Thursday but will do so virtually, not in person as originally planned, she said. The full slate of senators on a Friday panel called Women Leaders of the Senate will still appear live in Las Vegas, she said, including Sens. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev.; Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. The spokesperson sidestepped our questions about whether the speaker withdrawals were germane to CTA's decision to waive its $700-and-up Deluxe Conference Pass fees for in-person CES 2022 audiences (see 2201030034). Blackburn confirmed Monday that she will travel to Las Vegas for CES 2022 and looks “forward to collaborating” with tech leaders and the bipartisan group of senators on “key issues in the tech environment, including the current lack of accountability eroding the relationship between platforms and users.” A spokesperson in Clyburn's office confirmed Tuesday "that the Congressman had a scheduling change and will not be attending CES this year."

CTA was vague when we questioned it about how health and safety criteria factored into its New Year’s Eve decision to shut down CES 2022 a day earlier than previously planned (see 2112310001). “We have consulted with outside medical professionals and health experts in the State of Nevada to develop our health and safety protocols,” emailed a spokesperson Monday. It’s unknown for how long the decision was in the making to shut down CES 2022 at the close of business Friday. CTA released the announcement about 2:15 p.m. EST. Roughly four hours earlier, when CTA announced that “130+” exhibitors were signed on for the CES Unveiled Las Vegas media-only event Monday at the Mandalay Bay, CES 2022 was still on as a four-day event. CES crowds customarily are already home or headed out of town when day four rolls around. CTA’s explanation was similarly murky about its decision, disclosed Thursday without much fanfare, waiving its Deluxe Conference Pass fees for in-person CES 2022 audiences. We wanted to know if CTA’s rationale for a fee waiver was as an incentive against in-person CES audiences dropping out or because participating speakers or workshop panelists had decided in the end not to travel to Las Vegas. Instead, the CTA spokesperson said: “We are excited to offer all registered attendees that are attending the live show in Las Vegas with access to the great line up of speakers and sessions (100+) we have planned. Therefore we have made the decision to no longer require a paid conference pass to attend our conference sessions.” Those who paid for the $700 pass through Dec. 8 (and $850 after Dec. 9) will get refunds after the show, said CTA. We found noticeable gaps in the CES 2022 conference schedule Monday, compared with the content that was displayed there when we checked over the weekend. Gone from the schedule is a Friday session at 9 a.m. with House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., on making high-speed internet more affordable and accessible. There also no longer appears a previously listed session on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. with Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) on how innovation is shaping their communities. On Dec. 21, CTA publicized a Jan. 7, 12:30 p.m. session in which Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., would lead a panel that included Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., with Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. The schedule Monday afternoon still listed a session on that date and time slot called Women Leaders of the Senate, but the page listing of possible participants was blank.