Psion, the wee company that decided no one should say netbook so it could pursue the spoils of trademark battles, just got a kick in the balls from Dell.
Dell has filed a cancellation request with the USPTO for Psion’s trademark on the word “netbook,” which, as Dell asserts, has become a generic term for small, crappy-but-cheap computers that everybody wants for some reason. Psion did actually use to make something called The Netbook, but it’s really old and they haven’t sold it for a long time.
As Rob points out, Dell’s been very careful not to use the term so far—so has Sony, though it’s more of a marketing thing for the Vaio P—but obviously they’ve got their eye on it. Given who’s fighting who, I’d squeeze the word tight, since they aren’t going to own it for a whole lot longer. [USPTO via BBG]
Jimmy Snuff
Friday, February 20, 2009 at 11:05 AMIt’s funny that Dell says it’s been careful not to use the term ‘Netbook’ but Vodafone on the other hand has recently using the term on some of their promotional material, featuring a Dell in the advertisements.