Samsung applied for U.S. trademark registration for the name “Ultra Chroma,” following a similar application filed May 2 in the U.K., Patent and Trademark Office records show. Samsung plans to use Ultra Chroma for large-screen TVs, including for “operating software” for “MicroLED modular display panels” of the sort that it introduced at CES, said the May 7 application. The modular microLED displays introduced in Las Vegas are capable of rendering “brilliant colors,” Samsung said then. The company didn’t comment Monday.

Sony is seeking a permanent injunction against a Florida entrepreneur on Lanham Act “trademark dilution” allegations for doing business under the names “Soni Interiors” and “SoniTex USA” without a Sony license, court documents show. “Defendant’s SONI Marks so closely resemble Sony’s distinctive and famous SONY mark that they are likely to dilute the distinctive quality of the SONY mark,” said the complaint (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. District Court in Orlando. “The SONI portion of the SONI Marks is identical in pronunciation and nearly identical in appearance to the famous SONY mark,” it said. Consumers "are likely to pronounce 'SoniTex USA' as 'SONY-tex USA,' making it phonetically identical and highly similar to SONY in overall commercial impression," said the complaint. People also are likely to get the "false and misleading impression that 'SoniTex USA' is Sony’s U.S. textile, fabric, or furnishing unit," it said. Sony runs no such subsidiary in the U.S., emailed Sony America spokesperson Lisa Gephardt Monday. SoniTex is a manufacturer and wholesale distributor of kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, flooring materials and other home-improvement products, and sells them to the public through an affiliated Soni Interiors warehouse store in Sanford, Florida. Deep Soni, as the owner of both enterprises, applied at the Patent and Trademark Office six years ago to register those names as U.S. trademarks, said the complaint. Sony successfully blocked both applications before PTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) on the same trademark-dilution grounds as in the complaint, it said. PTO records show the agency declared the applications dead in April 2015 and January 2016 after owner Soni let both lapse without meeting PTO's deadlines for challenging the TTAB's rulings. Roughly two dozen "valid and subsisting" registered trademarks are on file at PTO embedded with the Sony logo, said the complaint. "They constitute conclusive evidence of the validity of the registered mark, of Sony’s ownership of the mark, and of Sony’s exclusive right to use the registered mark in commerce." Though Sony doesn't object to "the fair use of ‘Soni’ as a last name, Defendant’s current use does not constitute fair use,” said the complaint. "Defendant seeks to derive a commercial benefit from the value and goodwill associated with the SONY mark," and "unless enjoined," will continue "its unlawful activities and continue to injure Sony," it said. Soni's representatives didn’t comment Monday.

CableLabs and NCTA collaborated on a series of 10G trademark applications Friday in preparation for the cable ISP industry’s CES rollout Monday of its 10-gigabit broadband initiative for deployments planned for as soon as late 2021 (see 1901070048), Patent and Trademark Office records show. NCTA’s application was to trademark a stylized 10G commercial logo, and CableLabs filed for four plain-text certification marks that would be reserved for industry-compliant 10G products and services: (1) CableLabs 10G Certified; (2) 10G Ready; (3) 10G Certified; (4) CableLabs 10G Ready. NCTA says cable companies and CableLabs are doing 10G lab trials now, with field trials to start in 2020 and market deployment likely to begin 12-18 months after trials are complete.

Samsung applied Friday to register the trademark Samsung Crypto Wallet as a cryptocurrency wallet app for future Galaxy smartphones and tablets, Patent and Trademark Office records show. It filed a similar application a day earlier with U.K. trademark authorities. Samsung last week filed applications at PTO and in the U.K. to register the Samsung Blockchain Wallet trademark (see 1812260031). The company didn’t comment.

Samsung applied to register “Samsung Portland” Friday as a U.S. trademark for TVs, Patent and Trademark Office records show. The company filed a similar application a day earlier with EU trademark authorities, they say. Wednesday, Samsung didn’t comment.

Samsung applied in the U.S. and EU to register “wide angle” last week as a trademark for unspecified TV offerings, Patent and Trademark Office records show. Samsung previously applied in mid-October to register the “Samsung Q Wide Angle” trademark, also in the U.S. and EU, for its QLED TV, say agency records. Monday, the company didn’t comment.

Sony applied July 23 to register “Acoustic Surface Audio” as a U.S. trademark for an “electronic audio apparatus sold as a component feature of television sets that allows sound to output directly from the surface of the television display,” Patent and Trademark Office records show. A week after filing the application, Sony announced at a New York news conference it's beefing up the audio in the AF9 OLED TVs it's introducing with Acoustic Surface Audio+, which adds a center channel and an additional subwoofer channel, using actuators “hidden behind an acoustically transparent screen” (see 1807310045). Sony began commercializing the Acoustic Surface name -- without the Audio suffix -- with the CES 2017 introduction of its first OLED TVs (see 1701050004). Sony applied in June 2017 to register the Acoustic Surface trademark, but the PTO in March denied the application on grounds that Acoustic Surface is “merely descriptive” of Sony’s goods and services. The application remains active at PTO, as Sony has until Sept. 14 to respond to the refusal.

Sony’s Tokyo parent company applied July 9 to register the “QN” plain-text trademark for a wide variety of possible commercial tech products, including TVs, speakers, headphones and smartwatches, Patent and Trademark Office records show. Sony already has “QN” in commercial use as part of a model-number designation for consumer accessories, including AC chargers and lithium-ion battery packs for smartphones. Sony didn’t comment Friday.

CTA applied June 18 to register as a “certification mark” a second logo it designed for “personal sound amplification and enhancement devices” to be sold over-the-counter to consumers with mild or moderate hearing loss, Patent and Trademark Office records show. CTA created the logo as a means of identifying reputable OTC hearing aids that meet “minimum performance requirements” as specified in the ANSI/CTA-2051 standard it approved in January 2017 with the American National Standards Institute. CTA applied for the first logo in October (see 1710170016), but PTO rejected it on grounds it was “sufficiently similar” to the trademarked logo Bose uses for its Bose Hear listening-enhancement headphone app, raising the “likelihood” of consumer “confusion” between the two (see 1803040001). CTA had until midnight Sunday to challenge PTO’s rejection but let the deadline lapse without responding, rendering it likely that the agency will now declare the application abandoned. CTA spokeswoman Izzy Santa confirmed Monday that the new logo will be used "in conjunction with CTA-2051." CTA President Gary Shapiro keynoted the Hearing Loss Association of America convention Thursday in Minneapolis but didn't unveil the logo there, said Santa. "His remarks focused on our standards work being done." The FDA Reauthorization Act of 2017, which President Donald Trump signed into law in August, created a new category of OTC hearing aids for adults with mild to moderate hearing loss. The law gives the FDA three years to develop rules on how OTC hearing aids will be regulated.

The Copyright Office is extending the comment deadline for its NPRM on a proposed new fee schedule by 60 days to Sept. 21 “to ensure that members of the public have sufficient time to respond,” it said Thursday.