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Jeff Bezos last month went public with his new AI firm, which is currently being called Project Prometheus. The effort had been in development for a while, but is still relatively secretive. Theres no website and only a sparse LinkedIn page describing itself as AI for the physical economy. The $6.2-billion startup may be facing lots of competition from other AI companies, including giants like Microsoft and OpenAI. At the same time, it may also have to contend with another mysterious and more modest effort that happens to have already filed a trademark application for an AI company with the exact same name. On November 17 — the same day the New York Times ran a story revealing the new Bezos AI effort — an attorney named Patrick Wallen filed an application for a trademark for Project Prometheus, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office website. The address is listed as a residential home in California. Its the only application that seems to be tied to Wallen, and references a website featuring software that uses artificial intelligence to evaluate, score and benchmark individual performance for purposes of personnel selection, employment assessment, professional development, skills competitions and education. Wallen tells Fast Company in an email that he hasnt heard from the Bezos Project Prometheus and that hes working at a lawyer scoring platform that uses AI, also called Project Prometheus. Fast Company was unable to identify records related to that company, though there was an LLC registered by a different person in California several years ago. Wallen says hes been developing the site on Figma, shared a minimum viable product on Figma, and was recently accepted to an incubator. I had an original name for my company that didn’t score well. Feedback provided indicated I needed a change. On the day of the Bezos announcements, I scoured the internet to verify the legal reality of these news publications. I looked for the Delaware filing through the Secretary of State. Nothing, Wallen says. I did the same in Nevada. Nothing. I looked for a foreign qualification filing in California. Nothing. I looked for a trademark filing in TEAS. Nothing. A linkedin company page? Nothing. Form D EDGAR filings with the SEC. Nope. Since their press publication interfered with my marketing strategy, I filed my trademark, he adds. I now own the name and it is the name of a real business that -ironically- is designed to demonstrate the skills of a lawyer. Wallen’s application did not come from the Bezos Project Prometheus, a spokesperson confirms. His application has yet to be reviewed, according to the USPTO website. The Bezos AI project — which is being co-led by Vik Bajaj, an adjunct Stanford professor, physicist, and chemist whod previously helped Alphabet-owned platform Verily — is focused on AI and the physical sciences and not legal AI according to the New York Times. The company has already hired about 100 people and purchased another startup called General Agents. These days, many companies have a penchant for choosing titles alluding to science fiction or mythology. The names Anduril and Palantir both come from Lord of the Rings. Other examples include Oracle and Nike, which references the eponymous ancient Greek goddess of victory; Prometheus is the name of an ancient Greek titan. The term Project Prometheus has been used previously by DARPA, NASA, and, in the world of the television show Smallville, by Supermans arch-nemesis Lex Luthor. Still, trademark fights can get nasty, particularly for valuable Silicon Valley companies. A device company called iyO sued Open for using io in its branding and Elon Musks xAI is still facing trademark troubles over the name of its chatbot Grok, which has prompted pushback from similarly-named companies. A company called Meta.io also sued Facebook after the social media company renamed itself as part of its metaverse pivot. With all due respect to Mr. Bezos, he has every resource in the world at his disposal, Wallen adds. His lack of preparation is not a reason for me to alter my plans. On second thought, perhaps he should consider hiring more diligent legal counsel.
Category:
E-Commerce
Candles and lights are typically a festive part of the holiday season but, this year, Yankee Candle has little reason to celebrate. Its parent company, Newell Brands, has announced that it will lay off over 900 employees worldwideabout 10% of its professional and clerical workforce. Layoffs in the U.S. will mostly occur this month, while international employeeslike those from countries with greater worker protectionswill see layoffs take place through 2026, subject to local law and consultation requirements. Newell Brands also owns Oster, Rubbermaid, Elmers, and Sharpie, among others. Some Yankee Candle stores will shutter by January 2026 Newell Brands is also closing approximately 20 Yankee Candle stores across the U.S. and Canada. According to Newell Brands, these stores make up about 1% of Yankee Candles brand sales. The locations are likely to close in January 2026. Fast Company has reached out to Newell Brands for a list of all impacted stores and will update this post if we hear back. Newell Brands predicts the layoffs and store closures will save $110 million to $130 million in annual pretax costs. Weve made meaningful progress executing our strategy and strengthening Newell Brands, but there is more work to do, president and CEO of Newell Brands Chris Peterson said in a statement. This productivity plan is about taking the next, disciplined step to enhance efficiency, sharpen our strategic focus, and deliver stronger, more consistent performance.” Its far from the only large company that has trimmed its brick-and-mortar footprint in recent months. Claires, Foot Locker, and Petco are among the retail chains that have announced store closures in the latter half of 2025. Shares of Newell Brands (Nasdaq: NWL) have declined significantly this year. As of Wednesday’s market close, the stock is down more than 62% year to date.
Category:
E-Commerce
The longest government shutdown on record cost Delta Air Lines an estimated $200 million, CEO Ed Bastian said Wednesday in the first disclosure by a U.S. airline regarding the shutdown’s financial impact.Bastian told investors that refunds “grew significantly” while bookings slowed amid the uncertainty in air travel caused by the 43-day shutdown, contributing to Delta’s loss of about 25 cents per share.The shutdown, which began Oct. 1, led to long delays at major airports and historic flight cancellations at 40 of the country’s busiest airports as more unpaid air traffic controllers missed work, citing additional stress and the need to take on side jobs. As the shutdown dragged into a second month, the Federal Aviation Administration issued an emergency order requiring commercial airlines to cancel up to 6% of their domestic flights a decision that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy described as necessary to guarantee safe air travel.“When you’ve got the secretary of transportation telling people we don’t have controllers, questioning the safety at some level of travel, which has never before happened,” Bastian said, it led to more customers holding off on booking their holiday travel.More than 10,000 flights were cut between Nov. 7, when the FAA’s order took effect, and when the restrictions were fully lifted on Nov. 16, less than two weeks before Thanksgiving, the busiest travel period in the U.S.Despite the disruption to air travel, Bastian said Wednesday he believes the shutdown’s impacts are in the rearview. He said Delta had a busy Thanksgiving week and that bookings through the end of the year, especially around Christmas and New Year’s Day, were “really strong.”“I think we’re through it and it was transitory,” Bastian said of the shutdown. “We’re looking forward to a strong December, a strong close to the year.”Airports impacted by the flight restrictions during the shutdown included large hubs in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Atlanta. The flight cuts started at 4% and later grew to 6% before the FAA rolled the restrictions back to 3%, citing continued improvements in air traffic controller staffing after the shutdown ended Nov. 12.Controllers were among the federal employees who had to continue working without pay throughout the shutdown, missing two full paychecks.President Donald Trump took to social media during the shutdown to pressure controllers to “get back to work, NOW!!!” He called for a $10,000 bonus for those who stayed on the job and suggested docking pay for those who haven’t.A week after the shutdown ended, the FAA announced only 776 controllers and technicians with perfect attendance during the shutdown would receive bonuses, leaving out nearly 20,000 other workers.On Wednesday, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Aviation, Space and Innovation, sent a letter to Duffy demanding that he also award bonuses to the remaining FAA workers.“It is wrong to financially penalize these Federal employees for responsibly managing life events beyond their control while working without pay,” she said.Duffy didn’t immediately respond Wednesday to the letter, but when asked about the bonuses last week at a news conference ahead of the Thanksgiving travel period, Duffy said that both he and the head of the FAA recognize “some of the difficult circumstances our controllers were going through” during the shutdown. But Duffy said a cutoff on the bonuses was necessary.“If you got 100% on your test, you get the sticker that’s a scratch-and-sniff sticker,” Duffy said, adding that all the controllers and technicians who were forced to work unpaid would receive full backpay. Associated Press writer Josh Funk contributed to this report. Rio Yamat, AP Airlines and Travel Writer
Category:
E-Commerce
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