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IBM, the largest I.T. corporation, are suing the Priceline Group for abusing IBM's patents without authorization and should pay for damages of infringement. Priceline has ignored IBM's previous warning about the same issue back in 2011. The patent being used by Prineline is a system that hundreds of websites are currently using. Is it fair that these system from IBM are patentable? However, if IBM has the rights to these systems, why should the Priceline Group be able to abuse it without any authorizations? Should this be a lesson with other companies practicing the 'wait and see approach'?

This article discusses a war between American Airlines and Orbits, and how they cannot come into an agreement in regards to using the GDS. American Airlines is mainly the provider for most of the fares and traveling but orbitz is there other marketing strategy that is used to sale the tickets online. Nonetheless, American wants and pushes for travel agents to use their direct system to book flights rather then using Orbitz or another chain of coming to book travelers flights. America does offer a variety of prices depending on different categories, as well as frequent flyers miles/points if they book with American website and sources. In essence, American Airlines still wants to have control of their flights and prices as they are the main sources from the beginning of time.

In their attempt to cease the use of "middlemen", British Airways and Iberia will attempt something so bold that not many other airlines have done. The airline plans to add surcharges to the tickets consumers purchase through GDS's in hopes that they will book directly through them. Although many predict that they will fail, they originally got the idea from the airline Lufthansa, which implemented this approach back in the summer of 2015 and have not seen a loss in revenue since. Sabre did try to sue the airline for this however the case remains in limbo.

This new Google Venice Update enable customers to receive more relevant and precise hotel information than before when they searching. The information including the nearest hotel around them, price, up-coming events, restaurant hours and so on. While many hoteliers already have a geo-targeted SEO strategy targeting long-tail keywords addressing the location, nearby attractions, etc., it is important to cover all your other SEO bases to ensure the best results. Further, developing an APP applied on iPhone or iPad which will increase convenience for customers and improve productivity for lodging industry.

This article describes one of the worst situations that could occur when operating a hotel. According to the text, Wyndham Hotel Group failed to implement a strong enough security system, resulting in hackers breaching the network and stealing over 600,000 credit card numbers and over 10 million dollars in fraudulent charges. The FTC is suing Wyndham Corporation for failing to take the proper security measures to guarantee the security of the most important customer information. The FTC also states that Wyndham used improper software configurations that presented credit card information in a manner that was clear and easy to read. Michael Valentino, spokesman for Wyndham Worldwide, the company made prompt efforts to notify those whose information had been compromised and according to Valentino, no hotel customer had experienced a financial loss as a result of the attacks.  Despite Valentino's claims, the FTC is suing Wyndham for unfair and deceptive practices in failing to protect the privacy and personally identifiable information about guests. The FTC claims that Wyndham failed to address the security failures that occurred after the first breach in 2008 and did not implement technology that could have detected unauthorized access to networks. In 2009, hackers used similar techniques to break into the network again as steal as much personal information as they could. 

In the age of apps and mobile technology, something told me this one was coming. I found an interesting article about 10 travel companies being sued by a mobile app producing company for copyright infringement. Air Transport World is reporting that MarcoSolve Inc., based out of Oklahoma, is suing several airlines and other companies, including Avis Rent A Car, the Hertz Corp., Hipmunk Inc., Hotels.com, Priceline.com and Travelocty.com. The patent that MacroSolve is suing over grants the company the ability to download apps to any mobile device, collect data from those device users and send that data back to a central database. On a travel-based application, this would be conceived as the ability to track user location and automate social networking connectivity. MacroSolve was finally granted the patent in 2010 following several revisions when the company originally filed in 2002. More than 30 other companies other non-travel based companies were also sued by MacroSolve for infringement. However, a patent consultancy is claiming that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted the same patent for the invention to different companies. When considering the app world and app technology, the article indicates that there are only very small differences in software that distinguish one patent from another. As app-building technology continues, I believe news reports will begin to reveal more litigation like this. This is the type of technology that tends to overlap in design. For example, the article says the MacroSolve patent on differed in its use of its app terms like "poll", and "survey". Air Transport World reports the recent litigation is forcing some foreign developers away from the U.S. market.

In this article, it basic discussed some of the key points of business switching to a point of sale system and why it would be beneficial. One reason was to prevent shrinkage. With a POS system, sales are automatically recorded during every checkout which help to maintain inventory numbers. Another key point is that POS systems are beneficial to owners who may have more than one store. This allows for business owners to have accurate pricing across all locations and it improves customer service as well. For example, if your store is out of particular product, you can sue the POS system to check which nearby locations have the product that the customer may be looking for. Lastly, POS systems have also been proven to be a great asset for making sure your business is operating effectively and efficiently. While away, POS systems allow for owners to monitor activity such s store performance and sales activity, in addition monitor the performance levels of employees to ensure everyone is staying on task and being productive. So all in all, switching to a Point-Of-Sale system is beneficial and a great move for businesses.

The author of this article targets entrepreneurs and explains the need to implement point-of-sale systems in businesses. The author explains that POS systems help businesses to track promotions more successfully and improve customer service, and thus, enhancing customer satisfaction. Besides, the system improves employee management.

Luis, I like this read. It makes some great points of how the investment of a POS is profitable for the establishment. One thing I did not realize that it is great for is to better track sales and promotions. This is an area that could really assist on driving sales with an establishment. If they analyze the data collected, the owner can know if the promotion was worth their wild OR a waste of time. Did it drive business and bring in new and repeat guests? Did it attract loyal customers? Did it help make new customers loyal? This is all information that is collected and can be very useful when using the POS. Thank you for your share.