Microsoft has trademarked the letter P. Not the actual letter itself, which remains untrademarkable due to it being one of the 26 letters that comprise every word of the English language, but a highly stylized letter P that could be used for anything from a new product to a rebranding of an existing product.
USPTO trademark: #97676577 is for "a geometric design in the shape of an uppercase 'P' in gradient shades from green to blue." The trademark application, as spotted by Aggiornamenti Lumia (via Eurogamer) was submitted on November 14 and is still awaiting examination.
Microsoft's intent for this new trademark is "to cover the categories of computer software for use in locating, gathering, compiling, analyzing, modeling, graphing, visualizing, animating, transforming, presenting and sharing data and other information." Which is to say that this trademark could be used for anything related to computer software, from development tools to an entirely new app. Or it could be a new label for PowerPoint--the trademark provides absolutely no details.
Personally, I'm hoping this P is actually for the next version of Windows. Maybe it's for "Windows Power" or "Pro Windows Professional Edition." Or maybe it's just going to be for "Windows P" to really throw that whole sequential numbers thing out the window (hah). Not that Windows ever really cared about the whole sequential numbers thing (lookin’ at you, XP).
In other Microsoft news, you can now play Solitaire, Minesweeper, and other time-wasting games on Microsoft Teams, the video chat software that like Bing and Google, never quite supplanted Zoom for video conferencing. And there's also going to be a new sexual harassment and discrimination report coming from Microsoft starting on June 30, 2023. This move comes from a recommendation from a law firm Microsoft hired following reports of Microsoft execs harassing and discriminating against employees with few to no repercussions. The report will detail all incidents of harassment as well as the steps Microsoft took to resolve the issue and what it will do to prevent such incidents from happening in the future.