Netbook enthusiast web sites getting C & D using term “netbook”
This is very preliminary but we are hearing that some netbook enthusiast sites are getting “cease & desist” letters from a firm in the UK ordering the sites to stop using the term “netbook”. The letters claim that the term netbook is trademarked by the firm that produced the Psion netBook in the early 2000’s.
We have not received one of these letters but have corresponded with a site owner who did receive one and they were ordered to remove the term “netbook” from content by March 2009 or face legal action.
Our research into the matter shows that the Psion Teklogix firm who produced the Psion PDA line years ago did in fact produce a Netbook and Netbook Pro device. The Netbook device was a small laptop form that ran the firm’s EPOC operating system and was a cross between a PDA and a laptop. The Netbook is amazingly similar to the netbook of today with the exception of the operating system which was quite advanced for that time.
The Netbook device was discontinued by Psion but it looks like they still make accessories including batteries for the Netbook. You can find a review of the netBook on Geek.com and the video below shows how it resembles modern netbooks. We’ll provide updates on this development as they appear.
Nothing yet on this end… Hope nothing lands in my inbox though. Talk about the ultimate holiday gift!
Funny, I was reading about netbooks yesterday and recalling the Psion Netbook and how it had a great form factor (the ill-fated Palm Foleo also reminded me of the Psion Netbook), but probably the wrong OS for the time. The Psion PDAs (like the Psion 3 or 5) were great devices with nice keyboards and possibly were the first real PDAs. And isn’t the Symbian OS based on Psion’s EPOC?
This doesn’t make any sense.
Why go after a bunch of bloggers? It’s not like they’re profiteering off the name.
Intel coined the, modern, term. If you’re going to go after anyone, go after them.
I don’t understand this. If the netbook is a trademark and a site used it in its domain name, this action sort of makes sense but to get C&Ds for writing about products that other people call netbooks is lawyer craziness.
They need to stop C&D’ing and start R&D’ing.
Unfortunately for the Psion people they are facing a fait accompli now, the netbook term is already widely used to describe the small new laptop variants, just like we use PC to describe computers. They are way too late trying to defend their trademark now.
sooo…these people WANT a bad reputation? are their marketing department just that retarded? such companies should be forced shut, dont need such idiocy in the world
Ah… Psion – British computing technology at its best. Thought they went the way of Commodore, Sinclair, etc.
Let’s all blame Intel, for its my understanding it was they who first started using the term to describe these devices.
My personal preference for these products has always been ’subnotebook’ – this based on experience with my first portable computer, the Compaq Contura Aero. This had no CD/DVD drive, a 10″ screen and (even for the era) a small HDD. And yes, using dialup, one had access to the net. Compaq’s own advertising and Press Releases of the the time described the Aero as a ’subnotebook’.
So let’s send all the lawsuits on ‘netbook’ use to Intel and slip back into calling them what they are.
@flatfeet — really has nothing to do with them being a British company, or British computing technology. This C&D approach is quite common in the US. And in fact, Psion Teklogix is headquartered in Canada these days. Not quite sure what their intentions are, since their Netbook/Netbook Pro line is discontinued. Doubtful that they’d plan a revival of that.
I wonder if they’re also going after Intel, the new owner of http://www.netbook.com — they are, after all, saying that their Atom processor is for netbooks.
Oh yeah, and anyone thinking of writing about netpads, watch out…
http://www.psionteklogix.com/public.aspx?s=us&p=EOLProducts
Funny how life works — I’m reading this article, on a Dell ‘Netbook’ which is hooked up to a 3G network through a Nokia E71 — which runs Symbian, which is a direct descendant of EPOC OS.
The circle of tech!
-olly
Pretty interesting, I’m curious to see how far Psion and it’s legal team will go. Have any sites come forward and said they received the C&D? I mean, are they just trying to scare a few bloggers or is Intel going to have to step in and tell Psion what’s up ; )
btw- one of my favorite geek.com articles of all time.
Analysts Gartner and IDC both use the term “mini-notebook,” not “netbook.” A mouthful versus netbook, but a decent alternative.
Gartner: http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=740312
IDC: http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUK21477008
Idiots – and there are richer targets to go after than bloggers if they want to waste their money on legal rottweilers, the UK’s PC Pro for example: http://www.pcpro.co.uk who produced a whole review of “netbooks” without acknowledging any prior copyright…
stupid
The following C&D letter was not sent to a blogger as a threat of legal action, but it was to prevent “genericide” of the trademark, and to potentially institute an trademark infringement action against Intel.
If the blogger chose to ignore the C&D, and continued to use the “netbook” term, there is nothing Psion could do about it legally.
All this letter serves as is huffing and puffing to reclaim and protect the trademark, which Psion has unfortunately not been very proactive about protecting.
We have on record here many times where we decried the term “netbook” but it became a generic publicly used term anyway. I suspect this attempt is just testing the waters going after small sites before talking to Intel for using the term. It has no merit and will go away quickly I assume.
A key facet of trademark law is the need for maintaining use through lawful trade activity, and to defend the trademar against misues. Psion has done neither of these things for a considerable amount of time – so I would see the C&D as legal hot air.
Psion also does not have the resources for an expensive court fight – they are effectively now a small niche provider.
It’s a load of flim flam…
If you’d like to let the author of the memo, Peter Langley, know exactly how you feel, feel free to email him. Got this direct from the Origin web site.
Peter.Langley@Origin.co.uk
http://www.origin.co.uk/home.htm
If I ran a site about mini portable computers and had one of the CnD letters, I’d write a piece on my site explaining where the NetBook name came from, and how netbook is different.
But I’d also note how the Psion product was an abject failure in the market, so demonstrates how their products should probably be totally avoided.
Web 3.0 – harnessing the Streisand effect to hurt opposition (and make a killing off the adverts in the meantime).
Calm down all you flamers. Netbook is doing nothing wrong. This is perfectly moral and legal behavior on their part. The invented the term Netbook and are entitled to keep it as a trademark as long as they want. They still use the term in commerce and thus they still hold legal ownership under U.S. and international trademark law. No different from Apple’s continued ownership of PowerBook.
It’s Psion’s property and if you’re griping about you’re simply being hypocritical, unless you are willing to give up your own intellectual property without a fight.
The right thing for all of us to do is to simply switch to another term. Netbook is inaccurate in any case. The salient feature of these devices is not their network connectivity — every notebook has that. It’s their miniature size. These devices are all about the dimensions of the defunct palmtop form factor (sold by IBM, Sony, Acer, etc). Those did _not_ have much in the way of network ability, so a natural and more accurate name for these new devices is netpalmtop.
We’re eventually going to reach a day when every word, phrase or idea is trademarked or copyrighted so we won’t be able to thik, say or post anything without fear of being prosecuted by greedy attorneys represneting non-existent or defunct business’s.
netbook net-book NetBook NETBook netbook NET-Book etc..
so sue me. Ugh…that is so aggravating. Its indirect censorship at its best.
David
The trademarked name Netbook has moved from a trademark to the vernacular due to Psion not defending the trademark over the last 3 years. Now the legal defense of trademark will not hold up. Sorry Psion but you lost trademark.
Looks like the slashdot crowd is on the way over here…
http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/24/1923213
Trademarks have to be defended or they expire. The term “Netbook” was adopted by other companies and used as generic for several years. I believe this trademark is now unenforceable. Further, this this website is not using the term for any product or service that it offers, rather it is refers to products from other companies who have adopted the term “netbook”. The use on this page is therefore just a factual description and is not actionable.
I hereby coin the term Motebook, being a Mini-Notebook
Yes, you heard it here first!
Simple conclusion: psion are assholes.
It would seem that permitting the use of the work “netbook” for this long would void the validity of the trademark. The term, “netbook”, is already generic; “netbook” cannot corralled back to Psion. The word, “netbook”, has already entered the general vocabulary. Why, it even has a wikipedia entry–proof that “netbook” is now generic.
I worked for a company that had this problem. They started protecting their trademark names immediately. It was their quick action that kept there name from becoming generic. Xerox also had this problem.
Psion has waited too long to reclaim the name/word/trademark. They sound more like a patent troll than a technology company.
@hike — patent trolls want to make money of a patent. I doubt that Psion is trying to make money by licensing the name Netbook. Who’d pay — Intel?
ok, how about “i.Net-Book” sounds kind catchy but I thing Apple would start sending out letters.
David
Maybe they are just testing the waters by sending C&D’s to bloggers and if that works out they can then go after Intel
Good luck, Psion
I have yet to get one as well and look at my URL… All I can say is they can do as they like, I’m certain if we get some public backing they will quickly drop this!
Bah, does this mean I have to rename http://www.sammynetbook.com
Sadly I can’t afford to argue anything like this and I’d just change it. Guess I have to watch closely. And I thought I was being cautious by not using “samsung” in the URL.
I guess I’ll be following this closely…
While we have now heard of one C&D letter being sent to a website owner I wonder how many more have been sent out, and if any of those have gone to the industry giants like Intel. I am sure the big companies won’t be sharing the their current legal issues, but wouldn’t more smaller sites that have received letters be coming forward? Thinking in the mind of an internet marketer I would imagine that there would be many sites coming forward to share their letter, along with their site, just for simple site promotion.
I am not sure how far these legal threats will go but I find it disturbing that psion is now trying to reclaim a term that has now become generic in reference to mini notebooks. Perhaps they are planning on releasing a modernized version of their netbook and want to reclaim ownership of a name that has now been marketed well by the industry. It almost sounds like a “name squatting” issue to me. Why didn’t they take earlier action to protect their netbook name copyright?
I will wait and see if I also receive a C&D letter, but I would like to think that I if I received such a letter I would sit on the threat and see how it plays out with the larger industry players, namely, Intel’s use of the netbook term and its ownership of the netbook.com domain.
I have two of these. They were WAY ahead of their time and faced a tragic death. Everything Psion made was released 5-10 years before its time.
The OS is not that obscure, just ahead of its time. It is now the #1 operating system for mobile phones in the world (Symbian is based on EPOC).
Yes, Psion first came out with the netBook running their own software and then converted to Windows CE with the netBook Pro. This was similar to the “Jupiter” devices that were dubbed H/PC Pros (stupid name) when we released the software in 1998. Both Psion and Apple approached us about transitioning from their embedded OS’es to Windows CE at that time but Psion had to support the Symbian coalition and Jobs killed the Newton software. I think Psion had the last Jupiter-class device on the market or it might have been the Clio.
Maybe Psion should rather put their money into producing a new generation Netbook.
Given the quality of their products in the past they will be able to kick some serious butt in the market place. I am still using my MX5. May I add that I am already on my 4th one!
Unfortunately feelings and hopes don’t have anything to do with intellectual property rights of individuals and/or corporations. Those that feel this is much to do about nothing have neither developed nor owned the rights to a product or concept that they’ve worked hard to develop. A product that after its development is taken be someone else for their own financial gain.
My guess is that these are the same people that believe pirating DVD’s, CD’s and MP3’s is also acceptable. Any group of investors willing to put up the money to develop a product should be afforded the legal protection for their investment.
This may seem to be trivial for the common person. What is happening is a company is displaying the active and continued protection of a registered trademark. The alternative is if the company fails to actively protect its trademark, it may loose its right when a more significant infringement occurs.
This is more about how the legal system views trademark protection than about a company sending “Cease and Desist” letters. I’m sure Psion would rather be spending it’s monies on other things than trying to protect a registered trademark if they didn’t have too. Unless, not protecting their Trademark would result in the termination of their rights. Then it becomes a necessary business expense in the best interests of the share holders of the company. Try developing a MP3 player call it an “Apple”.
It’s a difference without a distinction.
In my garage is a rake that I used regularly until I got my leaf-blower. I haven’t used it for 5 years but may again one day if the leaf-blower goes bad. In the meanwhile my garage is locked because, knowing my neighbor as I do, he would be over here in a minute and my rake (and leaf-blower) would be gone. If he breaks in and takes my rake I will notify the police and a judge will deal with him.
As the legal owner of the trademark netbookpro.com and also it’s domain name, I feel that a C&D letter from my company to Psion should be apporiate.Your comments would be appreciated.———Jim
I would thing we should fight back if they do send us letters.
According to wikipedia:
“The term had existed previously – although related to specific products rather than a category of laptops…
- Psion in 1999 had used the product name ‘netbook’, and in 2008 claimed trademark rights to the term where used in a product name.
MSI had registered the product name Wind Netbook.
Coby Electronics had registered the product name Coby Netbook.”
I guess it will be hard to reclaim a term that has now become generic in reference to mini notebooks…
So any book purchased from Internet (the net) would be a netbook, plenty of dough to dig there for the Psion attorneys
Netbook is just as funny as Microsoft Windows, HP Notebook and and many others despite the fact that Psion was the best Netbook I ever had, even better than the Psion3, 3a and 5mx-series and I have had many later editions of PDAs such as Qtech PocketPC and many others.
There are also many other funny trademarks such as Ford,Opel,Toyota,Honda etc, which are just personal names after all.
Arne Asberg
AspenTech
Sensoring the internet is a human rights issue. The internet needs an e-first-amendment.
I believe everytime someone searches for Netbooks that this possibly hurts my business
As the legal owner of the trademark netbookpro.com and also it’s domain name, I feel that a C&D letter from my company to Psion or any company using the internet to prompt products using the Netbook or Netbookpro would be apporiate..Whereas Netbookpro.com is an internet based company which depends on the internet for business. Your comments would be appreciated—Jim