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Netbooks Popular Enough For a C&D From Psion

Posted by timothy on from the real-mark-of-success dept.

Kevin C. Tofel writes "After watching the netbook industry explode from nothing to 14 million sales in year, the time is right for Cease & Desist letters. Psion, a UK computer company that years ago sold a small sub-notebook called a netBook, is starting to protect the term. At least one netbook enthusiast site received a C&D for using the 'netbook' term and others are sure to follow. The site was given three months to stop using the term. Ironically, it isn't the enthusiast sites that coined the popular term. In the spring of 2008, Intel dubbed these devices netbooks to help define a market for their low-powered Intel Atom CPU."

8 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. I propose a new term: by base3 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Notapieceofshitpsionbook

    --
    One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
  2. Mack Book. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Imagine if Mack Truck published a coffee table book containing photos of trucks it built over the years and titled it the Mack Book. And then imagine if Apple sent them C&D letters because MacBook is an Apple product. How ridiculous would that be? Equally ridiculous to the difference between netbook and netBook. Notice the capital "B" in the latter. Clearly a product name. Notice how the former has become a simple word in common usage in the English language to refer to a whole class of sub-notebook computers. What the hell else are we supposed to call them? Teenie-tiny-notebook-computers-that-are-smaller-than-most-notebook-computers?

    1. Re:Mack Book. by atraintocry · · Score: 2, Funny

      Imagine if someone tried to pretend that two computing devices having the same name was the same as a computing device and a stack of wood pulp sheets with some glue on the end.

  3. Re:It's really Psion's trademark by ScrewMaster · · Score: 2, Funny

    Plamtops or Subnotebooks.

    Would they be running PlamOS?

    --
    The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  4. Re:Is there a trademark registered on "Asshole"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is there a trademark registered on "Asshole"?

    Yes. It's registered to a Mr. erroneus aka UID: 253617.

  5. Re:It's really Psion's trademark by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    A: "What's that?"

    B: "A netbook."

    A: "Oh. What's a netbook?"

    B: "This."

    A: "Oh. What's that?"

    (A gets beaten to death with a netbook.)

  6. Re:Its a cheddar thing by jpatters · · Score: 2, Funny

    Anyone who hasn't tasted a genuine Vermont Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese hasn't tasted the best Cheddar cheese there is.

    --
    "Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
  7. Re:So... just curious: by Forbman · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wow... my TRS 80 Model 100 runs for a week on 4 AA batteries.