4 ms·
Amazon spins off Kindle Fire products into separate company called Seesaw
- hendzen 15y agoCould this have something to do with protecting the rest of Amazon's corporate structure (AWS, Amazon.com, etc.) from patent liability?
- cperciva 15y agoVery unlikely. You can be sued for selling an infringing product even if you didn't create it.
- gojomo 15y agoA spinout is an absurd and nonsensical level of speculation from the mere fact that Amazon filed some trademark registrations via a separate LLC. Amazon is already a maze of separate entities for tax purposes, for example to tap-dance around 'nexus' standards for assessing sales tax. Much more simple (and thus more likely) explanations for this 'Seesaw LLC' registration entity are thus: (1) this allowed them to obscure the filing (especially as of the earlier, foreign, 'priority date') from people searching for Amazon registrations (2) it allows some tax advantages from cross-entity IP licensing I'd go with (1); clicking through to the registrations shows the marks first registered in Tonga ('Fire' in May 2011; 'Silk' a few days before the public announcement). I believe I've heard of Apple using a similar tactic to acquire registered trademarks without tipping off outsiders.
- alexholehouse 15y agoAbsolutely. Literally ridiculous "journalism".
- psawaya 15y agoI wonder how this will differ from Lab126, which was the subsidiary that developed the E-ink Kindle. Their web site features the Kindle Fire, too. http:///www.lab126.com http:///www.lab126.com
- k-mcgrady 15y agoMore than likely the trademarks are being registered by a holding company. It's unlikely that Amazon would spin the product to a separate entity. Most big tech companies register domains and trademarks under holding companies to protect the product identity before launch.