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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."

3 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Jerks. by bmo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hey uh, unlike patent and trademark trolls, apparently Psion are still using the trademark, which they did come up with on their own before anyone else.

    The only jerks here are you and your knee.

    --
    BMO

  2. It's really Psion's trademark by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you search here for the term "Netbook", 18 entries come up, one of which is a live trademark assigned to Psion. It's interesting that neither Intel nor the various manufacturers and retailers marketing computers under the term "netbook" took the trouble to do this simple web search.

    --
    Bruce Perens.
  3. Re:Jerks. by Gerald · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not publicly. My experience has been:

    1) Notice (or be notified of) a copyright or trademark offense.

    2) Try to contact the company.

    3) Get a reply from person 1 who:

        a) Doesn't have the power to fix anything.

        and/or

        b) Doesn't care.

    4) Go back and forth with person 1 for a few months.

    5) Deal with person 2..n who:

        a) Took over for person n-1 when they:

            i) Quit.
            ii) Went on vacation or maternity leave.

        b) Is person n-1's supervisor or someone from a completely different department in another time zone (and who can't change anything or doesn't care).

    This goes on for several months until I send an angry certified letter to the president of the company or hand the matter over to my lawyer.

    It's quite possible that Psion are a gaggle of jerks. It's also possible that they've been trying to get this resolved privately with no joy.