8 01732 759725 ...continued NEWS Tech trade marks fail to resonate with UK public Technology brands come low down in the affections of British consumers if the results of a poll conducted by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) are anything to go by. To mark 150 years since the UK’s first trade mark was registered, Bass & Co’s red triangle label on 1 January 1876, the IPO asked the British public to vote for their favourites. The highest ranked technology-related trade mark, coming in at number 23 is BT, followed by Apple in 24th position. Today, more than 2.5 million trade marks (names, images and identities) are protected in the UK, including 400plus from the Victorian era, among them Cadbury, Bovril, Lyle’s Golden Syrup, Bird’s Custard Powder and Rose’s Lime Juice Cordial. Every year, the IPO receives around 200,000 new applications from UK and international brands. When the Trade Marks Registration Act 1875 came into force, applications were limited to marks used on physical goods. Since then, trade mark law has expanded to include services as well as goods, and what can be registered as a trade mark now includes not just words and logos, but motion marks, multimedia marks, holograms and even patterns of light. www.gov.uk/how-to-register-a-trade-mark Beware fake customer service numbers Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) is warning UK consumers to be wary of customer service numbers presented by AI tools and search engines after its research revealed that such numbers are often fake and could be putting callers at risk of fraud. Around 1 in 8 (13%) Brits, rising to more than a quarter (27%) of older Gen Z and Millennials aged 25–34, say they have been presented with a fake customer service number by online tools, with an additional 22% saying they might have been. Rather than being the result of an AI hallucination, VMO2 warns that numbers presented by chatbots and search results are frequently the work of criminals who are exploiting such tools to show consumers fake numbers, websites and search results, which they then use to capture data and perpetrate fraud. It advises anyone looking for a customer service number online to use numbers listed on official company websites, apps or bills; to be cautious of numbers returned by search engines, social media posts or AI tools; never to share security codes or personal details with unsolicited callers; and to report suspect calls and texts to 7726 on any network to help shut down scams. Murray Mackenzie, Director of Fraud Prevention at Virgin Media O2, said: “At Virgin Media O2, we’re doing all we can to keep customers safe by blocking known scammer numbers on the network and using AI to flag more than 1 billion suspicious calls to date. But with scammers looking to exploit new channels to target victims, everyone can help us keep people safe by reporting dodgy numbers to 7726 so we can shut down scams faster.” IT teams hit with ‘AI brain fry’ AI’s ability to do time-consuming, repetitive manual work is beyond question, but what if it is adding to people’s workload in other areas? In a global survey of more than 1,000 IT professionals carried out by Solarwinds, 67% of respondents admit that AI is reducing manual work. However, even more (71%) say it has made their role more demanding by introducing new AI management and oversight responsibilities. More than two thirds (71%) say they need to double-check AI’s work; 62% say they struggle to trust AI recommendations; and 48% say AI generates too many insights without enough context, making results harder to interpret and act upon. Cullen Childress, Chief Product Officer at SolarWinds, warns that as AI becomes more widely embedded across businesses, the burden of oversight, from managing risk to ensuring tools are used correctly, is increasingly falling on the shoulders of IT teams that are already stretched thin. He said: “IT teams are being hit hard with additional cognitive load resulting from AI implementations. While the wider workforce is embracing a growing number of AI tools, IT is left to manage and secure them, as well as extract value from data that often lacks context. “Without proper planning, AI can introduce more risk through gaps in security and governance, while adding more fragmentation, reviews and sanity checks for teams that don’t have the capacity to absorb it. However, the right AI tools can change that, helping teams move away from constant reactive work towards more intelligent, automated environments that identify issues earlier and reduce the need for manual oversight.” https://www.solarwinds.com/campaign/it-trends Cullen Childress Top 30 trade mark icons 1. Rolls-Royce 2. Radio Caroline 3. Twinings 4. Cadbury 5. Burberry 6. Bass 7. TfL – the Underground roundel 8. Calpol 9. Mini 10. BBC 11. Coca Cola 12. M&S 13. British Rail 14. Jaguar 15. Tate and Lyle 16. Heinz 17. Boots 18. Marmite 19. Penguin books 20. NHS 21. Greggs 22. BT 23. Apple 24. Royal arms 25. McDonalds 26. BSI kitemark 27=. Guinness, HMV, Virgin, Marine Shepherd, Nike, Hoover, Tunnocks, Dyson, ICI, Royal Mail, Shell, Woolmark, British Airways, Landrover
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