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Cube (YC W12) Goes Deeper Than Your Standard iPad Register

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Re: Cube (YC W12) Goes Deeper Than Your Standard iPad Register

#12

Does that qualify as trademark infringement? I can definitely see the case for customers being confused by the similarity to Square. edit: Can someone please explain why this is being downvoted? I'd like to make sure my contributions are constructive.

Does that mean all shapes are off limits now?

Re: Cube (YC W12) Goes Deeper Than Your Standard iPad Register

#13
The challenge in this space is not the technology, or more cool/useful features.

It's merchant adoption.

It's a massive barrier to entry when a local business has invested upwards of 10's of thousands of dollars on their existing POS system. Or, the flip side of the coin is that they have zero desire to get anything more technical than a $60 register from PriceClub. This is scary stuff to most local merchants.

It's a super long term play to get market share.

Re: Cube (YC W12) Goes Deeper Than Your Standard iPad Register

#15
post #9

Gordon Ramsey has outfitted several restaurants on Kitchen Nightmares with iPhone-based (or other "new gen") POS systems, and I'm interested to see if they still use them. There seems to be so much going on in this space, especially with the advent of low-cost, high-performance touch devices. I'm a little surprised I haven't heard of some massive win yet, like a major retailer transitioning. Kitchens are at least hig…

Square seems to be the go-to AFAIK.. they probably have the widest following in terms of absolute number of businesses adopting them. I could be wrong though.

The Square register was a huge flop with most merchants (though they are addressing these issues with more recent updates). Most merchants I've interviewed that use an iPad as a POS solution have tried it, and dumped it for something that actually met their needs. Again, they are addressing these issues, but that was the feedback I received less than 6 months ago.

Re: Cube (YC W12) Goes Deeper Than Your Standard iPad Register

#16
post #12

Does that qualify as trademark infringement? I can definitely see the case for customers being confused by the similarity to Square. edit: Can someone please explain why this is being downvoted? I'd like to make sure my contributions are constructive.

Does that mean all shapes are off limits now?

No. Square and Cube offer very similar products.

If I started a fruit distribution company and called it Rhombus, there probably wouldn't be an issue.

I can't say whether there is definitive trademark infringement here (Cube seems to offer analytics services and targets a niche market, differentiating its product). However, I can't help but feel that "Cube" is a reference to Square.

Re: Cube (YC W12) Goes Deeper Than Your Standard iPad Register

#18
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that mean all shapes are off limits now?

No. Square and Cube offer very similar products. If I started a fruit distribution company and called it Rhombus, there probably wouldn't be an issue. I can't say whether there is definitive trademark infringement here (Cube seems to offer analytics services and targets a niche market, differentiating its product). However, I can't help but feel that "Cube" is a reference to Square.

I think trademark infringement is definitely too strong. That being said, I think it's a stupid name.

"Oh look we're going to be marginally competitive to Square, we're going to offer more than Square.. CUBE!"

No. It's an unoriginal, hackish name, but at the end of the day it looks like it could be a decent product.

Re: Cube (YC W12) Goes Deeper Than Your Standard iPad Register

#20
post #2

Looks interesting - glad to see some competition heating up in the POS space. Any way to try out the service without fully signing up for an account? There are a few features I'd like to see if it has (that almost every other iPad POS lacks) and I don't want to create an account just to sandbox....

What are those features?
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