![psion[1]](http://www.crunchgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/psion1.jpg "psion[1]")
Chalk up a victory for Psion, the company that trademarked the product name “netbook” eight or nine years ago. You’ll recall that the company sent cease and desist orders to certain websites in late December demanding that the term “netbook” be removed.
Turns out that Psion’s got a case. The company told jkOnTheRun “that Google has investigated the trademark claim and determined that ‘netbook’ is indeed a protected trademark,” which has “prompted them to inform their ad customers that the term can no longer be used in Google ads.”
Psion is only seeking satisfaction from sites and companies “using the term ‘netbook’ in ventures for profit,” according to jkOnTheRun, so apparently writing about netbooks is fair game as long as we don’t build our own and call it a netbook.
So in other words: no real purpose besides thumping their chest and saying “we coined the term FIRST!”. Sigh…gotta love legal stuff.
Nope. They’re just saying that you can’t call your tissue a Kleenix. They consider netbook to be a brand and not a description something that is less than notebook and more than a PDA.
A pox on their house.
I say it’s bullcrap. 8 years ago nobody care about that “netbook” and now after it is become ultra popular, this tiny small company want to claim it is their brand?
estupidez, si todos registramos los términos que fluyen del lenguaje, nos quedaremos sin vocabulario….
“Save the Netbooks” campaign launched to fight impending trademark threat
The “Save the Netbooks” campaign is fighting the impending trademark threat
from Psion Teklogix, who have given until the end of March 2009 to cease using
the term, citing trademarks relating to a line of products discontinued over 5
years ago.
For more information visit http://www.savethenetbooks.com/.
Mission One: Reverse the Google AdWords “netbook” ban
If Psion’s “netbook” trademarks are good enough for Google they’re good enough for the rest of us, right? Not necessarily. While this is a victory chalked up for the visitors it is less significant than it has been made out to be. Furthermore, reversing it now could well prove the death knell for Psion’s marks (it would be far worse to have this victory briefly than to have not had it in the first place). Here’s hoping that Google do the right thing sooner rather than later.
Fortunately it shouldn’t be all that difficult. Here’s why…