Harry Potter trademark oddities

Weird Harry Potter trademarking intrigue: Agent: No eighth Potter book for Rowling [CNN]

The Scotsman reported that U.S. film studio Warner Brothers, which releases its second Harry Potter film next month, has registered three more Harry Potter titles as trademarks, raising the possibility of an eighth volume.

A Reuters search of the UK Patent Office trademark database confirmed the extra titles as "Harry Potter and the Alchemist's Cell," "Harry Potter and the Chariots of Light" and "Harry Potter and the Pyramids of Furmat." Warner Brothers filed the titles for registration in April 2000...

Rowling's agent said none of the registered names would be used for any future Potter book.

Hm. Maybe they're for video games?  

 Buffy repeats start tomorrow

Buffy newbie reminder: FX broadcasts of Buffy season 3 repeats start tomorrow, at a pace of two a day. Here's a handy list of episode titles [BuffyGuide.com] for the TiVo-configurer.  

 Julia Keller on Sports Illustrated Women

Sports Illustrated Women is folding. Is that bad? by Julia Keller [Chicago Tribune via MediaNews]

Shouldn't women, like men, be treated as professionals rather than pinups? No Sports Illustrated cover, for instance, would feature a male athlete in a skimpy outfit with a pouty, come-hither expression, a staple of Sports Illustrated Women. Male athletes are allowed to look like the dignified champions they are -- rather than Hooters employees.

And shouldn't female athletes fight to be covered in Sports Illustrated itself -- rather than being shunted aside into what could be construed as a women's auxiliary?

It gets more complicated and more subtle... worth reading.  

 Assorted links from Anil

Some good links snarfed from Anil Dash:

Mena Trott Talks Movable Type [SXSW Interactive]

A friend once told me that the average percentage of people who pay for shareware is something like an absurdly low 2%. While we can't be completely certain of the exact number of Movable Type users, we estimate that about 30-40% of them have voluntarily donated. This makes us very happy. ... Movable Type is our (my husband, Ben, and I) day job. We're basically able to support ourselves by breaking even each month. Financially, it's not a fun way to live, but we're doing something that we love.

How Ikea Designs Its Sexy Price Tags [Business 2.0]

Ikea sells furniture that's cheap but not cheapo, at prices that typically run 30 to 50 percent below the competition's. While the price of other companies' products tends to rise over time, Ikea says it has reduced its retail prices by a total of about 20 percent during the past four years.

In Ikea's innately frugal corporate culture, where waste has been declared a "deadly sin," the flat package is also an excellent way to lower shipping costs by maximizing the use of space inside shipping containers. The company estimates transport volume would be six times greater if its items were shipped assembled. From the design studio to the warehouse floor, Ikea employees' mantra is always the same: "We don't want to pay to ship air."

Sometimes... product components actually come together for the first time in the store. In the case of the Pöang chair, the cushion comes from Poland and the frame from China. The two pieces are united only when the customer pulls each one off the shelf.

Introducing the Microcontent Client [magazine, by Anil Dash]