More information concerning Psion, the company that trademarked the word “netbook” back in 2000. You’ll recall that the company sent out cease and desist letters to certain sites that used the term “netbook” and even got Google to remove “netbook” campaigns from its Ad Words advertising program. Guess who’s not too happy about all this? Dell.
Dell has issued a petition to cancel Psion’s trademark, citing the following:
- Psion claims that it began offering laptop computers under the mark Netbook in
approximately 1999. - Upon information and belief, Psion is not currently offering laptop computers under the
Netbook trademark. - Upon information and belief, Psion intends not to resume bona fide use of the Netbook name in the ordinary course of trade.
- Psion has abandoned the “Netbook” mark.
Fraud was also cited, as a senior product manager for Psion apparently claimed that the company had been actively using the term for its notebook computers even though it had not. “Genericness” was another reason – Dell claimed that many companies (Dell, HP, Lenovo, Aver, ASUS, Sony, Sylvania, Samsung, MSI, LG, and Fujitsu) have all been making netbooks and, as such, the term has become generic.
According to the documents, the status of Psion’s trademark application is “Cancellation Pending,” so it appears the term will soon be fair game.
The Save the Netbooks blog also sent the following message to Google, with an appeal to have the “netbook” Adwords ban lifted:
From: Save the Netbooks
Date: Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 2:10 PM
Subject: Public complaint about “NETBOOK” trademark subject to pending cancelation
To: Google Advertising Legal Support TeamDear Sir/Madam,
Psion Teklogix’ “NETBOOK” trademark is now the subject of a Petition for Cancellation[1] filed by Dell Computer, Inc. on the basis of:* Abandonment
* Genericness and
* FraudAccordingly we believe that it is inappropriate that a ban be maintained on a term over a trademark which is now clearly unenforceable, knowing that many businesses (including Google’s) are being harmed the entire time this ban is in effect.
Save the Netbooks
http://www.savethenetbooks.com/1. http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/v?pno=92050564&pty=CAN&eno=1
[via PC Advisor]
It’s surprising after last year’s attempt to trademark “cloud computing”, but today Dell really was a white knight for the industry and deserves a pat on the back for their efforts – they don’t even use the mark extensively themselves (yet).
We discovered the petition while in the process of filing our own (and passing around the hat to cover the costs) and were happy to see that their hired legal guns picked up on the fraud angle in addition to abandonment and genericness.
In any case it’s lucky we stumbled on it as they take 6 months to process and in the mean time all sorts of havoc could have been wreaked on the industry.
Save the Netbooks