The UpStream (Page 200)

What do theme parks and Nintendo have in common? Both of them use magic wands. At least, that was the claim according to Apollo Global Management's Creative Kingdoms, a company who has created magic wands for kids to "cast spells" at the company's various theme parks around the world. Creative Kingdoms filed a lawsuit in 2011 with the International Trade Commission against Nintendo, claiming copyright infringement on Nintendo Wii remotes. This week, the ITC rules that the Wii could continue to be sold in the US, despite Creative Kingdoms' claims.

In the notice posted earlier in the week, the ITC says that Nintendo has not violated any patent rights that are owned by the theme park company. Because of this the agency has rejected CK's request to prevent Wiis from being imported into the States for sale. This happened after Trade Judge Charles Bullock said that the Wii-mote is not just a "toy wand" and because it does not have a hollow center, the two patents in question were invalid for this lawsuit.

The Commission has determined that complainant has not shown that the accused products directly infringe (on the) patent because they do not meet the limitation "command," and that complainant has not shown that the accused products directly infringe (on the) patent because they do not meet the limitation "activate or control." The Commission has also determined that complainant has not shown that the independently sold Wii MotionPlus and Nunchuck accessories contributorily infringe claim (on the) patent. Lastly, the Commission has determined that respondent has not shown that claim 24 of the '742 patent is obvious.

Creative Kingdoms even had the audacity to say that kids should use the PlayStation Move or Microsoft Kinect instead, because, and I'm paraphrasing, at least you could burn more calories with those systems. Nintendo turned around and called the claim "remarkable." Considering Creative Kingdoms only referred to one game in the ITC filing, the Wii Sports Resort title Airplane, Nintendo also said that demanding an import ban made no sense because you can play other games on the Wii that aren't Airplane.

All of this is really frivolous, even to Nintendo. The case was one of the oldest game-related cases still pending in the ITC's office and Nintendo said that it was finally glad everything was settled. It should be noted that the Wii U was not included in this case because it wasn't sold until after the hearing before the judge, so the new console was left alone. You can click on the source link below to read more on the ITC's ruling and, if you still don't own a Wii and don't want a Wii U, rest assured that you'll be able to purchase one this holiday season.

The search for a new CEO for Pandora concluded this week. Six months after the company's CEO, Joe Kennedy, resigned in March amidst strong Q4 numbers, Pandora announced its new chief executive today in a press release.

Brian McAndrews, a man who has worked with Madrona Venture Group, aQuantive and Microsoft, has been brought in to fill Kennedy's shoes and lead the company for the foreseeable future. Pandora wrote that it was looking for someone who could focus on the advertising side of the company and push it forward as fast as possible. Tim Westergreen, Pandora's founder and chief strategy officer, commented on the search.

We had very specific criteria for our new CEO, and we were very strategic about finding the right person - Brian is that person. No one better understands the intersection of technology and advertising, which he clearly demonstrated during aQuantive's meteoric rise. He has a recognized ability to set strategy, lead large teams and drive growth and innovation at great scale. He is also a natural cultural fit with Pandora. This is a great development for our company.

We also have a little more background on McAndrews. In 1999, he took over Avenue A and turned it into aQuantive, which at the time was the world's quickest expanding digital marketing firm. In 2007, that company was then bought by Microsoft for $6 billion. McAndrews continued to work with the software giant until 2009, when he left his Advertiser & Publisher Solutions position to become a capital partner in start-up focused tech company, Madrona. His accolades have led him to be named Advertising Age's first Digital Executive of the Year and was once included in AdWeek's 30 most influential marketing and advertising executives.

McAndrews concluded the press announcement with excitement on his new role.

It is a great privilege to be asked to lead Pandora at this important moment in the company's history. By capturing the enthusiasm of more than 72 million monthly listeners, the management team, led by Joe and Tim, has made Pandora the clear internet radio leader and created a product that consumers love. I look forward to joining this great team to build on Pandora's success for years to come.

Despite the obvious disagreement people outside of Pandora would have on the company being the clear leader in Internet radio, I think McAndrews stepping in as CEO of Pandora matches the new focus of the brand perfectly. Pandora has been pushing marketing and advertising hard as of late, and with someone with a background like his, I can only see good things come out of it, at least in the long-term. Pandora is still losing customers to other services, and with iTunes Radio now becoming a full-fledged product, Pandora will need to innovate and implement some stop gaps in the near future in order to prevent a sharp customer drop in subscriptions.

NBC and ABC are using their ownership of Hulu as a great way to get interest in their new fall shows by releasing the pilots weeks ahead of their air dates. The 5 shows below are all well-written and well-acted, and all should be checked out on Hulu today.

Back in the Game (ABC)

Raised by a single ball player father, Terry "The Cannon" Gannon, Sr., after her mother dies, Terry Gannon, Jr. goes on to play baseball herself, until she gets pregnant in college and loses her scholarship. Now, years later, Terry and her son Danny are forced to move back in with The Cannon after her husband cheated on her.

Damaged by baseball's influence on her life, Terry is less than pleased that Danny wants to play. As it turns out, however, Danny is only trying to impress a girl at his new school. After being cut from the league, Terry steps in to coach a team of misfits name The Angles, a prank played by the head of the league. Not Terry and The Cannon will help teach these boys about life through the American pastime.

Trophy Wife (ABC)

In an odd tribute from a network that unceremoniously canceled Aaron Sorkin's Sports Night, ABC has hired several members of other Sorkin series to fill out the cast of their new comedy Trophy Wife. Starring Bradley Whitford from Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip as well as The West Wing as the twice-divorced lawyer father of 3 children. He has met and married Malin Akerman of Childrens Hospital fame, whose best friend and Karaoke partner is Natalie Morales from The Newsroom. Whitford's doctor ex-wife is Marcia Gay Harden, also from The Newsroom.

Now, as a major Sorkin fan, I was excited about the over-population of past-Sorkin cast. The good news is, on top of a great cast, the premise of the series is setup for ridiculous comedy. Insane ex-wives, rowdy kids and a woman who badly wants to be accepted by her new family and to live up to her new life as "mom." Oh, and Phyllis Smith from The Office is the older son's teacher.

The Goldbergs (ABC)

What happens when you combine the situation of The Wonder Years with the comedy styling of Married With Children and set it in the 80s? What if you add in some of the best situational comedians, such as Patton Oswalt, Jeff Garlin, George Segal and Wendi McLendon-Covey and put it on ABC?

You get the new sitcom The Goldbergs. Patton Oswalt narrates from the future as the youngest brother of 3 kids in the adventures of a family living through the insane 80s. The decorations, the clothes and even the hair are picture perfect for the era. More importantly, the personalities are right on. Even more importantly, the comedy is well written and delivered, even by the children. Well cast and well written.

Ironside (NBC)

Continuing the well-received (*sarcasm*) television tradition of remaking older series, NBC is revisiting a series that seems like a live-action adaptation of the American Dad detective series joke Wheels and the Legman. Unfortunately, Ironside is actually a 60s and 70s NBC series about a wheelchair-bound detective. The lead is played by able-bodied Blair Underwood, which has caused a lot of controversy, though the casting actually makes sense.

Like Artie from Glee, we see glimpses of a world where the character is fully ambulatory. Unlike Artie, though, these are not fantasies, but instead looks into the past, before he was shot and paralyzed. This helps establish the character as a no nonsense, anything goes guy both before and after his injury. I assume they are trying to get at the fact that not everyone turns into a jerk when their life is turned upside-down - some are born jerks.

Welcome to the Family (NBC)

When a high school graduate (barely) falls in love with a high school valedictorian, sometimes it results in pregnancy. When this scenario happens on NBC, the families don't like one another, and that is always a recipe for a good sitcom.

Mike O'Malley stars as the father who is looking forward to his renaissance, the beginning of the next phase in life without children in the house, now ruined by his daughter's pregnancy. What could be worse? Her boyfriend's father hates him. Oh, and his wife is also pregnant, unplanned. If you thought ABC was going to be the only one with a Modern Family-style show this season, you were wrong.

Ever since Marissa Mayer took over as CEO of Yahoo, the company has had a complete turnaround. Yahoo is quickly becoming more relevant again and now owns an extremely large portfolio, and capped off the transition with a logo change. Now, Yahoo is becoming more transparent as well, and released some documents this week about the number of data requests received from government agencies around the world.

In this first global law enforcement transparency report, Yahoo shows information from January 1st to June 30th of this year. In the Tumblr blog post, Yahoo explains what the report actually is, from Ron Bell, general counsel of Yahoo.

Each country report shows how we processed the government data requests we received during this period. We include national security requests within the scope of our aggregate statistics. You will also see the number of accounts specified in these government data requests, which comprised less than one one-hundredth of one percent (<.01%) of our worldwide user base.

Yahoo also said in the post that this report is an all-encompassing government agency document, meaning anything from criminal law enforcement agencies to National Security Letters are included and added up. With this information, it does not come as a shocker that the US tops the list of requests to Yahoo. In six months, US officials have asked 12,444 times for information on 40,322 accounts. In those requests, Yahoo has provided information on 37 percent of the cases, and in just over half of those, only provided non-content data, which is any basic subscriber information like alternate email address, name, location, IP address, login details, billing information and the like.

Second on the list was Germany, who made 4,295 requests for a total of 5,306 accounts. Yahoo said that they only track requests when a country hits nine total requests, which places New Zealand at the bottom of the list for 9 accounts, and five of them were disclosed to the country. Yahoo also said that because of its acquisition of Tumblr, that the company will record Tumblr account requests into a separate bi-yearly report. Yahoo also pointed out that they continue to fight against unlawful or improper requests for data.

The entire report is interesting to look at, and is a fairly short read. It really puts into perspective how many times US agencies ask for information in comparison to the rest of the world, for just one company.

A few months back, it was revealed that Microsoft and Nokia had been in talks for a buyout, but that something had gone wrong and the talks had ended permanently. There was a lot of speculation over the reasons, from the market penetration of Windows Phone to pricing. No matter what was said at that point, it would appear that it was all a distraction from the fact that Microsoft and Nokia were actually finalizing details over the acquisition.

The final details, announced this week, has Microsoft writing a $7.2 billion check and receiving in return Nokia's devices an services business. This includes the smartphone, phablet and tablet business, as well as a license for Nokia's patents and mapping services.

Nokia will retain ownership of its corporate name, its mapping services as well as the underlying technology, NAVTEQ. Since the name isn't coming along with the purchase, that means that Microsoft will likely be branding future handsets from the ecosystem either Surface or just Microsoft, finally bring to reality the long rumored Surface-branded phones.

Another part of the acquisition is Nokia's now former CEO, Stephen Elop, who is becoming

Executive Vice President of Devices & Services. By taking that position, it means that he will be coming over to the executive team of Microsoft, a place where he is comfortable. Before becoming CEO of Nokia, Elop headed up the Office division of Microsoft.

This move is important because of Microsoft's announcement from 2 weeks ago, the search for a new CEO. Even before the announcement, when I knew that Ballmer wouldn't make it out of the Xbox ONE media disaster any better than Don Mattrick, especially after the way they bungled the Windows 8 launch, I believed that Stephen Elop was the next CEO of Microsoft. By purchasing Nokia, Microsoft has also purchased the contract for the man I think will lead the company into its One Microsoft philosophy, after uniting its closest hardware partner into the organization.

Obviously this is all speculation based on very little spoken from Microsoft, but there is enough out on the table to make an educated guess. It could take up to 12 months to know for sure, but my guess is that we will have our answer within the quarter.

Ever since its arrival here in States, I've been following the Spotify saga. From the company's first greeting message to the list of new features and markets added recently, I'm a huge fan because of the software's uniqueness. Plus, it seems the developers are constantly adapting to the market and keeping Spotify competitive and ahead of the curve. This week is no exception, with the introduction of Spotify Connect.

Spotify Connect, described from the music-streaming company itself, is a new way to play at home. Whether you have a phone, tablet or even certain speakers and receivers, customers everywhere can play, fast forward, favorite and totally control all of their music, both stored locally and from Spotify's service. Here's an example from Spotify on how it works:

You walk through the door, listening to a great playlist on your phone. With Connect, just hit play on your living room speakers and the music instantly fires up, right where you left off. You won't miss a beat.

Then pick up your tablet to control the music from your sofa. Or switch the sound to your iPod Touch in the kitchen's docking station. Keep the music flowing with Connect.

You'll notice that it's sort of like Hulu's service in that you can continue watching your content on different devices (with some exceptions) and it'll pick up where you left off. Other services like YouTube and some cable company DVRs work like this, too, however the difference is that Spotify has brought on third party hardware to carry out the tune-playing when you decide to put down your phone for the day. All you have to do is look for the Spotify Connect logo on any Philips, Denon, Marantz, Hama, Pioneer, Bang & Olufsen, Revo, Typsich, Argon or Yamaha receiver and your space will be transformed into a new party, courtesy of DJ Spotify. To top it all off, Connect doesn't drain your device's power, and you will still be able to make calls, play games and more, all from your smartphone or tablet while the music is playing through your home system or another device.

As of right now, Spotify Connect will be coming soon to Premium subscribers on iPhone, iPad and the home audio systems, hopefully by the end of the year. Then shortly after, we should expect it to show up on Android and desktops as well. Now if only I could get the "Radio" feature on my Windows Phone, we'd be in business. You can check out the video after the break to see more on how this all works.