Google has banned the term "netbook" from being used in ads placed on its wildly popular Adsense network. Why, you ask? Well apparently, the term "netbook" is a trademark owned by Psion.

Anyone remember Psion's Netbook Pro? No? You aren't alone. Last year when the netbook world started heating up, Psion was warning manufacturers that it owned the trademark on "netbook" and I suspect that, considering the Psion netbook is nothing but a memory of a little bag of fail, the company may be looking to sell the trademark. Either that or they are hoping to launch a netbook people will actually buy and want to have the only "netbook" on the market.

Google informed advertisers that "netbook" could no longer be used in ads they place, chalking up a win for Psion. Where exactly this trademark war will go is hard to say. "Netbook" is a word used by consumers, the media, and even Intel to describe products in a generic manner. A trademark becomes difficult to enforce and perhaps even unenforceable if the trademarked term becomes generic.

Should Psion succeed in killing off the term "netbook" as a way to describe the current litany of small and cheap notebooks on the market, what will we call them? Will we revert to the sub-notebook moniker or coin a new phrase? What do you think we should call them?

Listing image by Psion