Effort Underway To Save The Netbook Name

from the good-for-them dept

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You may recall that Psion is waging an uphill battle to try to reclaim the term "Netbook." It is true that Psion had a product called a "netBook" (note the capitalization) which was marginally popular in Europe nearly a decade ago. But, it went away. It's also true that Psion still holds a trademark on the term -- though, you'd be hard pressed to show how they're using it in commerce, considering they stopped selling netBooks years ago. The current popularity of the term has to do with a new category of devices, and has absolutely nothing to do with building on the work of Psion. But that hasn't stopped the company from aggressively asserting its right to the name, demanding manufacturers and others stop referring to what is commonly known as netbooks as netbooks, and even getting Google to ban the use of the word "netbook" in ads.It looks like some are fed up with this, and have begun a campaign to Save the Netbooks , noting that the name has reached a point that it's generic, and that the success of the term has nothing to do with Psion, but is entirely separate from Psion. The group points to a legal analysis of why Psion probably has no right to the term, and wants to drum up more support to get Psion to stop its misuse of trademark law. No one buying a "netbook" today is confused and thinking they're buying an old Psion product. It's about time that Psion back down and give up the term. After all... they already gave up the term a while ago. Trying to reclaim it now is simply trying to grab the value that was built by

Filed Under: netbooks, trademark

Companies: psion