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Amazon spins off Kindle Fire products into separate company called Seesaw?

Seesaw LLC

Seesaw LLC

Amazon appears to be spinning off its Kindle Fire business under a separate new company called Seesaw.

According to recent trademark filings for the Kindle Fire and Amazon Silk with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the applicant behind each application isn’t Amazon, it’s Seesaw LLC. 

All five trademarks were filed by Seesaw LLC and the attorney of record listed on each application is the same attorney as many of Amazon’s own filings:  Purvi J. Patel of Haynes and Booone, LLP.

While Amazon has made no public statement about this apparent spin-off, one can imagine if it really is the case of a separate company, it is so Amazon can make the necessary investments into its Kindle Fire and other mobile products that may be developed under Seesaw LLC.

There are currently five trademark applications by Seesaw LLC, all filed at the end of September with the USPTO.

AMAZON SILK Serial Number: 85435365
AMAZON SILK Serial Number: 85435357
KINDLE FIRE Serial Number: 85434021
KINDLE FIRE Serial Number: 85433969
KINDLE FIRE Serial Number: 85433968

[Update 1, October 8, 2011 1:03PM EST:  As CNN tech writer @MarkMilian points out in a tweet, “Amazon getting trademarks under a holding co. does not mean it’s splitting. Magic Trackpad registered to Slate Computing.”] 

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15 replies on “Amazon spins off Kindle Fire products into separate company called Seesaw?”

I thiink they do the right thing. Stepping into tablet business, or whatever name they call it, will complicate their brand name and focus. Secondly when they begin to get third party manufacturers, spinning into a separate company will be less confusing.

You’ve most likely have this backwards. Large companies often use small, dummy corps to register TMs and build IP portfolios in stealth and either transfer ownership afterwards are simply license them back — so that they can keep their plans a secret. I see ZERO evidence of a spin-off.

[…] 2011.10 08亚马逊或将拆分Kindle Fire，成立独立公司Seesaw（跷跷板）负责移动产品运营 pestwave 发表于 下午 11:22 亚马逊似乎要成立一家名为Seesaw（跷跷板）的独立公司，专门负责平板电脑Kindle Fire等移动产品的运营。背景知识：关于Kindle Fire:Kindle Fire配置Gorilla玻璃保护、多点触控的IPS屏幕，双核处理器，重413克。屏幕分辨率1024 x 600，跟RIM的Playbook一样。物理规格190 x 120 x 11.5 毫米，本地8GB存储空间，电池支持8小时不间断阅读，7.5小时视频播放（需要关闭WiFi），支持3.5mm耳机插口。在软件方面，亚马逊几乎将所有的Android内置的东西换成了他们自己的，更加便捷的用户界面，与自己的内容库打通，包括亚马逊应用商店（目前已经有10000款应用），跑在云端的Web浏览器Silk，所有多媒体内容将被备份到亚马逊的云端服务器，所以删除文件时你可以不用太担心。向美国专利商标局提交“Kindle Fire”和“亚马逊Silk”两项商标申请的申请者并非亚马逊，而是Seesaw有限责任公司。Silk是只运行在Kindle Fire上的浏览器，亚马逊将Silk称为“拆分”浏览器，一半工作在亚马逊EC2上完成。网站在被发往移动设备之前，会经过压缩和简化，更重要的是亚马逊的方法似乎更加高级，该浏览器的所有子系统都分布在服务器和客户端两侧，所有工作在设备和云端之间动态完成。除了优化Fire屏上的内容之外，Silk还会收集所有用户的操作动作，从而预测你的下一个动作，进而预加载你可能点击的内容。有关Fire的战略分析可参考这篇评论文章《Fire》所有五项商标申请的代理律师均为来自Haynes and Booone, LLP的Purvi J. Patel，亚马逊大部分商标申请也是该律师代理提交的。亚马逊没有就拆分问题发表公开声明，但这很可能说明亚马逊将以Seesaw的名义开发Kindle Fire和其它移动产品。以下为Seesaw提交的五项商标申请，都是9月底向美国商标专利局提交的。AMAZON SILK 序列号: 85435365 AMAZON SILK 序列号: 85435357 KINDLE FIRE 序列号: 85434021 KINDLE FIRE 序列号: 85433969 KINDLE FIRE 序列号: 85433968消息来源：fusible […]

Thanks for sharing Tweedle.  I’m guessing an Amazon spokesman may eventually make a statement as to whether it’s a spin-off, or nothing more than a dummy corp. 

*HOW* did you get from the screenshot above to Amazon “spinning off kindle”?! Seriously, don’t write such completly uninformed, ridiculous tripe.

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