As rumoured, Psion’s dickish legal claim to own the word “Netbook” is officially over thanks to Intel.
Or perhaps it ended with literally nothing at all. Regardless, it appears as though the netbook debate, started by Psion and now purportedly given a finishing move by Intel, is over.
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.
Netbook creator Psion won another battle in its war against casual use of the term “netbook” this week as Google banned the term from its lucrative ad network. Seriously now, what should we call them?
Remember when Psion came out and said they had a trademark on the word Netbook and that everyone should stop using it? Well they actually meant it. What a bunch of douchebags! According to an email sent from Retravision head office this morning, the retailer “MUST stop using the definition ‘NETBOOK’” (their caps). Not only that, but they have to remove all references to the word from “all collateral, web, presentations etc”. You have to feel for retailers in this situation – netbooks is such an apt way to describe these cheap little computers, and even though they’re working on a replacement name it almost certainly won’t have the same sort of marketing appeal. More »
Today we learned that an obscure UK company called Psion has claimed ownership of the term “netbook.” If we can’t use that term anymore, what should we call it? Give us your best ideas.
Yes, the netbook market is tired and pretty jam-packed, but check out this shiny beast: it’s a mini-netbook from Korean manufacturer UMID. And it’s tiny. There’s no official size info, but it looks smaller than a paperback book, and comparable to the old Psion PDAs, if you remember ‘em, but far more capable. galleryPost('umid', 3, '');
