Netbook Nitpicking?
An interesting trademark showdown has erupted over NETBOOK, a trademark originally registered in November, 2000 by Psion PLC, and now owned by Psion Teklogix Inc. On February 17, Dell Inc. filed a cancellation action against the mark in the TTAB, alleging that Psion committed fraud on the PTO when Psion filed its Section 8 & 15 affidavits in November, 2006, alleging that it had used the mark NETBOOK in commerce for the five years preceding November, 2006. Dell also claims that Psion abandoned the mark by not using it since 1999. Dell's cancellation petition may be seen here.
Not to be outdone, Intel has jumped on the bandwagon and filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, also asking for Psion's trademark to be canceled because the mark has become the generic term for small, inexpensive, low power laptop computers. Intel also throws in a fraud claim as well. Intel claims that Psion discontinued the last Netbook in 2003. Based on Intel's allegations, it seems that Psion started the mess when it sent a cease and desist letter to Intel accusing the chip manufacturer of aiding and abetting manufacturers and retailers to use the mark.
Psion's nastygram campaign also included enthusiast websites that were using the mark NETBOOK. Psion also convinced Google to tell its ad customers to stop using the mark in their Google ads.
Stay tuned for more fireworks. Intel should have filed its action in the Rocket Docket so the result would be known sooner. Expect these sorts of trademark wars to break out with more frequency as consumers (and manufacturers) adopt early computing trademarks as generic terms.
