Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Altaba: Is Yahoo Plagiarizing the Name of a Pakistani Company?

Altaba, the new name for Yahoo after its deal with Verizon, is currently the name of a Pakistan-based company spelled as Al-Taba, according to the New York Times. Is this plagiarism?

Not only is the new Altaba a much bigger company than Al-Taba, the two companies operate in totally different industries: The Pakistani company manufactures surgical and beauty scissors.

The new name for what will remain of Yahoo is a combination of words “alternative and Alibaba,” according to a person familiar with the company’s thinking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity  to the Washington Post.  After the rest of the company is purchased by Verizon for under $5 billion, Altaba's biggest  remaining asset will be its 15% stake worth $35 billion in the Chinese company Alibaba.  In addition, Altaba will also own 35.5% of Yahoo Japan.



As to the Pakistani company Al-Taba, its website describes it as "one of the largest private manufacturers and exporter of vast rang (sic) of Instruments.  It adds that "we specialized (sic) in Manufacturing Quality Medical Surgical Scissors and Beauty Scissors. It comprises of an integrated manufacturing facility, employing skilled craftsmen to produce broad range of professional Instruments".

It's sad to see Yahoo's demise. Started at Stanford University in 1994 by Jerry Yang and David Filo, the company is the pioneer of the web with an illustrious history in Silicon Valley. Yahoo enabled millions and billions of users to search the web for a variety of content and use its many services including e-mail, shopping and Yahoo groups. It will be missed.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

The Trump Phenomenon

Islamophobia in America

Silicon Valley Pakistani-Americans

Pakistani-American Leads Silicon Valley's Top Incubator

Silicon Valley Pakistanis Enabling 2nd Machine Revolution

Karachi-born Triple Oscar Winning Graphics Artist

Pakistani-American Ashar Aziz's Fire-eye Goes Public

Two Pakistani-American Silicon Valley Techs Among Top 5 VC Deals

Pakistani-American's Game-Changing Vision 

Minorities Are Majority in Silicon Valley 


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"It's sad to see Yahoo's demise."

What do you mean demise? My email is @yahoo.com and that is not going away. I still prefer it to @gmail.com
for the simple reason that they don't annoy me with targeted ads. Long time back I was using @gmail.com and
once I exchanged few mails with my sister which were very personal. Imagine my surprise when gmail started
showing me ads which were relevant to the topic I was discussing with my sister. No one else in the world knew
about it. In other words, they sold my privacy to the highest bidder. I swore on that day that I would never use it.

Rizwan said...

Altbaba Pakistan should sue Yahoo in a US court from trademark infringement

Riaz Haq said...

I wonder if there's a treaty obligation under WTO for mutual recognition of trade marks!!

Riaz Haq said...

#India's #Modi-loving #Hindu Nationalists troll Royal Enfield for selling ‘Made in #Pakistan’ motorcycle riding gear

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/royal-enfield-draws-flak-from-tweeple-for-selling-made-in-pakistan-jackets-2252365.html

Royal Enfield draws flak from Tweeple for selling ‘Made in Pakistan’ jackets
Eicher Motors-owned Royal Enfield, which is the oldest motorcycle brand from India in continuous production, has been importing and selling riding gear from a manufacturer based in Sialkot Pakistan.

Twitter has been abuzz with strong disapproval of bike-maker Royal Enfield’s business relations with a Pakistan-based riding apparel maker which is a supplier for the automaker's biker jackets and gloves.

Comments have ranged from benign condemnation to outright nastiness with one tweeple even going as far as to use a four-letter word, calling the tie-up a 'heartbreak'.

For over four years now, Eicher Motors-owned Royal Enfield, which is the oldest motorcycle brand from India in continuous production, has been importing and selling riding gear from a manufacturer based in Sialkot Pakistan.

Pakistan-based Pilot Sewing Corporation makes fashion jackets, racer gloves, bike pants and leather vests among several other products for many bike-making companies, one of which is Delhi-based Royal Enfield.

While Eicher has been importing leather jackets and leather gloves from this Pakistani company since the past few years it seems buyers became aware of it only recently.

Many people posted pictures of the manufacturing tags and labels of these imported products on the micro-blogging site Twitter expressing their displeasure.