With the whole “Glass” debate happening thanks to Google,
it’s made me take a longer and harder look at where our products are being
used. One building area that uses glass
extremely well is our new and remodeled airports. I seriously think you could have your next
trade conference inside Dulles Airport and just spend hours looking at all of
the glass and where its used as well as the multiple styles in play. Or you can go to the remodeled portion in
Newark, or the car rental center in Atlanta among many others. Glass plays a massive role in this
segment. Dulles in particular is truly
impressive as it uses glass floor to ceiling and everything in between. Honestly I think if you took the folks from
the Patent and Trademark Office to Dulles (not far from their offices) and
showed them the way that glass works, this whole effort would be done with.
On the whole Google note- feedback to my last post was
excellent- thank you to all. But one specific shout out to reader Celia who brought this to the table:
Interesting
take on the Google glass issue, I didn't realize that it was such a hot item.
What kind of effect do you think this would actually have on the glass industry
if Google succeeded?
Trademarking
common words also came up recently in the news, regarding Candy Crush. The app
creators have trademarked the word "Candy" in the European Union, although it was denied in the US. Also, Xavier Morales
points out that "Apple", "Time", "Shell", and
"Caterpillar" are trademarked common words. Apparently, sometimes,
it's quite appropriate to "own" generic words.
On the effect- I honestly am not sure. I don’t like our livelihood being owned by a
company that seemingly owns so much already.
But maybe this is much ado about nothing? On the 2nd point I did not realize
it and its pretty wild that trademarking generic words is possible. All I know is every time I had to work with a
trademark lawyer on anything it was painful and those were SPECIFIC materials
and not generics!
Thank you Celia for the note and everyone else who
commented both publicly and privately!
Elsewhere…
-- Don’t forget this Wednesday is the Mid Atlantic Glass Expo-
should be an excellent show as always!
-- An ugly Architectural Billings Index hit in March. This index baffles me. Sometimes I think it only exists to give me
monthly fodder for my blog. The index in
March was down below the break-even mark and it was attributed to possibly
being effected by the horrible winter.
Sorry I don’t buy it. The bad
winter is effecting work installing NOW- not 9-12 months from now or coming on to the
books. Just a head scratcher for me…
-- A major congrats to good friend Tom O’Malley who is starting
his own venture called Clover Architectural Products. Tom is insanely talented and I know he will
do great things with this new company- he’s assembled a strong team and he’s
hitting the ground running. Good luck
Tom and don’t forget us common midwestern folks after you make it big!
-- A big acquisition hit last week with Cardinal buying Northeast
Laminated. This one was done far beneath
my radar that’s for sure and it’s a great get by Cardinal.
-- Last this week… have you noticed for no real particular
reason gas prices are creeping up again?
I think this is the year, sadly, that we break the $4 mark and stay
there… It is amazing what the oil
companies get away with…
LINKS of the WEEK
-- The headline called this letter from a 5 year old to the IRS
“epic”- actually part of me thinks it’s a fake… still worth the quick read to see you
agree.
-- This is a fascinating building…
-- Meet the happiest man in America. Shockingly he doesn’t work in the Glass
Industry!
VIDEO of the WEEK
I like Jimmy Fallon- between him and Jimmy Kimmel, late
night has great talents (and please do not even think of adding Steve Colbert
to that, he’s not even close to their talent) Anyway Fallon just did a cool 4
part harmony with Bill Joel and an iPad.
Just very cool the way it all built up!
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