Apple loses iPad Mini trademark, and finds a fan in Kim Jong-un as North Korea rattles saber and tensions rise with U.S., while increased China headaches include hacking threat and iPad regulation.

Discovery Communications expands global channel reach and launches scripted programming.

Novartis loses cancer drug patent battle in India.

Amazon buys Goodreads community-driven user reviews website.

AMC reveals new tagline and logo.

Armani hires Cate Blanchett for $10M campaign.

AT&T scores with March Madness Twitter campaign.Continue reading...

Apple stock plunge concerns Wall Street.

Toyota recalls another 2.77 million vehicles.

Papa John's hit with $250 million lawsuit over unwanted text-message (aka spam) promotion.

BP settles with Russian partner.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II depicts David Petraeus as secretary of defense.

Cisco beats profit estimates.

GM and Peugeot halt talks on deeper tie-up.Continue reading...

The Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival is now available beyond upstate New York via an augmented reality mobile app called “Jazz Finder.”

A series of jazz genre posters placed throughout the city during the nine-day festival lets users scan any poster with the iPhone or Android app which provides historical information, sampling from the 110 festival artists and tracking of musicians' set times, and snap photos with an artist’s AR avatar for sharing on Facebook and Twitter.

"As creative technologists, we are inspired by the immense contribution Xerox continues to make to the computer-science revolution," comments Motive CEO Brian McSweeney, the New York/Dublin-based digital agency that produced the campaign in collaboration with Xerox and Roberts Communications.Continue reading...

Greenpeace activists recently scaled the headquarters of the KFC headquarters building in Louisville, Kentucky to hang a giant banner with a Sumatran tiger saying: “KFC Stop Trashing My Home.” A second banner was deployed on the lake the KFC building, dubbed “the White House” due to its resemblance to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, overlooks, bearing a similar message.

“We're here today to expose KFC's secret recipe. KFC customers worldwide will be horrified to learn that the fast food giant is using rainforests to make its packaging,” said Greenpeace Forest Campaign Director, Rolf Skar, about the protest action, which has gone global including a protest stunt in China and London this week. “The decisions being made here at KFC HQ are fuelling the destruction of some of the world’s last remaining rainforests, driving climate change and pushing the Sumatran tiger closer to extinction.”Continue reading...

Gap, J.Crew and other retailers slash prices, as stores try to thwart price apps, and tweak websites to spur sales.

A&W is sold by Yum! Brands to A Great American Brand.

Absolut celebrates 30 years of gay ads.

Adidas pursues church for trademark infringement; church asks Derrick Rose to intercede.

Akamai purchases cloud rival.

Apple isn't expected to produce a smaller iPad, although fuel-cell MacBooks are rumored. Apple's online sales also exceed Walmart.com results.

AT&T's $1.93 billion deal for Qualcomm's airwaves approved.

Bebe expands with wedding collection.

Best Buy criticized for not fulfilling some holiday online orders.

BT's long-running family campaign in the UK ends its run.

Burberry, Forever 21 and Zara score on Facebook.Continue reading...

As if Google+ were not enough turns out there’s a Google X.

According to the New York Times, it’s all very hush-hush — a “clandestine lab where Google is tackling a list of 100 shoot-for-the-stars ideas.” Widely rumored, as former TechCrunch writer Paris Lemon notes, think of it as an R&D skunkworks where Google is, in short, looking to invent the future.

“Google X has engineers working on everything from helper robots and Internet-enabled refrigerators to dinner plates and even space elevators (a concept popularized by science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke)," as PC Mag weighs in.

It's not to be confused with the short-lived Google X search project, at top, in 2005. The lab is such a highly guarded secret that nobody will go on the record about its activities.

“They’re pretty far out in front right now. But Google’s not an ordinary company, so almost nothing applies,” observed Rodney Brooks, professor at M.I.T.’s computer science and artificial intelligence lab and founder of Heartland Robotics, to the Times.Continue reading...

For the return of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Mountain Dew this week broke the new commercial, above. Directed by McG of Charlie's Angels big screen fame, it was created by BBDO NY with Activision and the former military advisors who consult on Call of Duty, with sound design by Music and Strategy. (Watch behind-the-scenes footage here).

Below, watch another audiocentric spot — HTC's new spot for Rezound, its smartphone with Beats Audio by Dr. Dre — and more.Continue reading...

It makes perfect sense that two of the biggest brands in business and entertainment, Xerox and Cirque du Soleil, would come together in a time when event sponsorship is a more serious decision as dollars and marketing resources are scarcer.

As the New York Times reviewed the Montreal-based troupe's current show, Zarkana, “What remains appealing about Cirque du Soleil shows is this emphasis on the human ability to create excitement from sheer physical prowess and perfectly drilled gymnastic feats.” 

Now, that prowess will be supported by Xerox, a new official partner of Cirque du Soleil, which will take on behind-the-scenes handling of Cirque's business processes and bring deft finesse to Cirque's cross-media marketing needs.Continue reading...