Well, this was sadly predictable. Following filings by
Dell and
Intel with the USPTO requesting that Psion's "netbook" trademark be canceled, Psion has filed a $1.2b countersuit against Intel, claiming that the chipmaker knew Psion owned the netbook mark but used it anyway. That's interesting because Intel's efforts to push "netbook" on the industry went basically nowhere from March until June of 2008 -- when
Atom-powered laptops ran amok at Computex -- but we're guessing Psion doesn't care. As it has in the past, Psion claims that
it's been selling Netbook-branded machines continuously since 1999, along with some interesting sales figures to back it up -- as
Ars Technica notes, the numbers seem to add up oddly at all the wrong times, with $2m of Netbook accessories sold in 2006, three years after the product went off the market, and just 4100 total Netbooks sold over 10 years. We'll see how the court decides to pull all this apart -- it's certainly starting to look like a showdown's brewing, but we're still convinced that Intel and Dell have money, time and momentum on their side here.
posted March 2nd 2009 3:54PM
I hope psion get their arse kicked on this occasion even if they are British.
I hope Psion wins, they seem like they have a legitimate case.
It is psions trademark and Intel should have done research before using it :)
It doesn't matter if psions device is a pile of crap it's still there trademark :P
Simple as that :)
Its pathetic that companies have to resort to this sort of stupidity to stay alive in this economy.
Granted, Psion has never really made a attractive product to begin with. Beyond that, I think any intelligent person can see that Psion's trying to trademark the term 'netbook' is incredibly stupid, beyond that asking for $1.2 billion is an affront to the legal system. Nobody ever purchased an Atom powered netbook thinking it was the archaic junk that Psion released over a decade ago.
A stupid trademark, ie a general name, didn’t stop Windows! And, time and money be damned, with $1.6B at stake, you can find entire armies of attorneys willing to take a piece of the winnings, or more likely negotiations.
Temple wrote:
"Granted, Psion has never really made a [sic] attractive product to begin with."
I quite like my Symbian OS phone. Symbian exists today greatly in part due to Psion's EPOC OS, which later became Symbian. It has nothing to do with NetBooks, but software can be an "attractive product", too.
Imagine if the shoe was on the other foot and Intel owned the patent. You could bet money Psion would already be out of business. While it may be a sad attempt on Psions part to simply earn some cash, big companies push litigation on smaller companies all the time with the single hope of causing them to go out of business simple from the costs inherent to the litigation. Its about time the underdog decided to make a stand.
Piece of crap or not, incredibly popular or incredibly obscure, a trademark is still a trademark. Either Intel did not know (which I find hard to believe) or simply assumed it had enough power to get away with it or muscle Psion around in court. Guess they havent followed up on the Apple vs Psion case much.
Psion probably don't have a case as they have not made the netbook for several years.
However, those of you whom disparage Psion - you should think again. While - back in 1993 - 99% of the middle managers in America were physically excited that Palm had replaced their daily index card schedule, I was picking up e-mail, editing presentations, documents and spreadsheets and staying on top of my business while traveling, partying and sailing all around the country.
Wasn't bad to be mobile with a Psion and a card-deck-sized modem when colleagues were lugging around 10 pound laptops...and Palms.
"I quite like my Symbian OS phone. Symbian exists today greatly in part due to Psion's EPOC OS, which later became Symbian. It has nothing to do with NetBooks, but software can be an "attractive product", too.
Too bad then Symbian is pretty much irrelevant compared to the modern OS' on the iPhone, Palm Pre, Android, Blackberry etc. Barely 'attractive' in the modern context, even with the vague connection.
@Boudu
Guaranteed you live in North America... Despite what you may think, Symbian is still the most relevant Smartphone OS today, having the largest Smartphone market share on the planet with close to 50%. It is not quite as popular in the US (I blame the carriers), but there is a whole world out there who don't have access to the iPhone, who don't have a Palm Pre (because it doesn't yet exist), who don't have an Android phone (only available in one market). I'm glad there are all these competitors, as competition only serves to make for better products all around. But to dismiss Symbian would be ridiculous...
@Dhomas
First off, the connection with Symbian OS to Psion is razor thin. For over a decade, Psion has had no hand in Symbian, a collaborative group of cell manufacturers did. And guess what, most of those manufacturers have since abandoned the Symbian OS for more advanced cellphone operating systems.
Symbian was used widely in the US in Nokia, Sony-Ericcson, and Motorola phones, its just become outdated in the last 5 years. Symbian 9 was released in 2004, and it hasn't been updated since. It's irrelevant, as is Psion for over a decade.
Beyond that, Psion, is making a pathetic display to register a term it doesn't even use, and is making a 1 billion+ dollar frivolousness lawsuit. Psion is the new SCO.
I have an idea- let Psion keep the name and come up with another name!
"LAPBOOK" tm
notelap (little c in a circle)
here you go ©
1.2 billion? Is Dr. Evil running this company?
yeah, they had to settle for 1.2B and angry sea bass
Why sue, Psion, when you make devices that are ugly as sin? Take that money from your lawyers and give it to your R&D department....
Duh, that's why they're gonna sue, so they can capitalize on their winnings and use that to restart their failed company but by that time "Netbooks" will have saturated the market and they will fail miserably again. Epic doom is their calling. Epic Doom!
Psion - as righteous as any hardware fanboy, except asking for money and backed by a cadre of lawyers.
I Dare someone to change their name to Netbook Netbookington!
go psion! they seem to be in the legal and moral right.
"PSION" SPELLED BACKWARDS IS "NOISE" (WOULD HAVE SAID NOISP BUT THEY TRADEMARKED IT :-)
1.2 billion huh? and how do they figure? Intel only makes the CPU chips used in these so called devices, not the device's themselves. That would be dell if you had to pick one of the 2. Intel was simply labeling a product that used there product, there there own product individually.
Because Intel is suing them over the trademark. RTFA dumbass!
What damage is Psion referring to exactly? o_O
Intel should counter-sue for 1.2b in advertising, as no one knew that the Psion Netbook existed until Intel got sued.
Step 1: Make trademark for poorly designed devices.
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit by taking Intel to court.
Those numbers are not breathtaking (except the damages requested). I hope they can put up a better case than what I've seen so far.
I”m wondering why everybody is saying that the NetBook is a poorly designed device. You have to compare that to 2000 series bricks by Dell. Also, Symbian is an offshoot of Epoc. Nokia should have created a NetBook nearly a decade ago! Anywhoo, back to the dissing. “NetBook” is way less generalized than “Windows.” The issues will revolve around whether Psion defended their trademark or not.
A wretched and pitiful way for a company that could have become the "British Sony" to act as it finally fades into obscurity. I loved their devices in their heyday but I would have preferred it if they could have just accepted defeat gracefully rather than kick up such a fuss.
If you worked at Psion or owned shares you would be cheering them on. It's just business.
Sounds like they have a pretty good case. Plus, they have an obligation to defend their trademark, which costs time and money to develop and register. That's how trademarks work.
I've a Psion Netbook sitting in a cupboard ... boy did they have dud batteries! ... so only another 4099 to track down. Great machine - used it as primary home email client for a couple of years.
I feel Psion has every right to protect their trademark that's why we have trademarks no matter how powerful the company using the trademark illegally. If I was running Intel I'd just create a new name, seriously not worth all the legal fees in our current economic state, nor all the fuss. The term Netbook can change overnight in the dynamic world of the internet, why not just be creative and let Psion have their trademark?
I think you will find they are US sales figures...
The original 1999 netbook ran EPOC (forerunner of symbian). This version was stopped in 2003 and was replaced with the Netbook Pro which was an updated version the ran CE .net 4.2 this version sold from 2004 up to present day.
Now as EPOC was really only made inroads in the Euro market the fact the sales only took off in the US market following availability of the CE version is not a surprise. They were also moving to vertical markets at the same time and CE gave the netbook functionality like RDP and ability to log into the corporate networks etc that these US vertical markets required.
Hope this helps clarify your objections to the sales numbers
John
I hope Psion wins. They didn't just dream up a netbook and file a patent hoping that one day they could sue someone who actually tries to create one. No. They developed, marketed, sold and refined the product over a number of years. It's irrelevant that at the time the market for such a device was extremely small. They had a real product with a trademarked name, it's both immoral and illegal for another company to market a similar device and using Psion's trademark.
Go Psion!
I want Windows.ce.NET. Where can I get a copy?
This is absolute bull****. Bell didn't trademark Telephone, Toshiba didn't trademark DVD Player, Sony didn't trademark Blu-Ray Player... No one trademarked Desktop PC, Laptop, Tablet PC or Internet Tablet...
Netbook is simply a size-descriptive term. Were Intel to have called Atom the Intel Netbook and used the same ugly outdated logo that ***** (don't wanna say it... might get sued for copyright infringement) uses... then sure, there's a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Oops... we can't say mouse anymore... they're "pointing devices". Mouse must be trademarked somehow.
Total FAIL
Telephone, DVD Player? Generic objects. Can't trademark a generic term (though it could be argued that Bell might have trademarked "telephone" had such things been deemed important at the time). Desktop PC, Laptop, Tablet PC? They're form factors. Again, generic terms.
Psion had a product, for which they coined the product name "Netbook". And, really, that can't be taken away from them for no good reason other than a bigger and richer company figures they have a better use for it. They don't even really NEED to have been producing them, though that improves their court case in defending the trade mark.
Even Apple had to settle with Cisco over "iPhone", since Cisco's Linksys division had a product by that name.
And "Blu-Ray" is very much a trademark. You can't use it on your product unless you've obtained the appropriate license (though that would come along with the license for the technology itself). If you somehow reverse-engineered a Blu-Ray drive and built your own that conformed to the same format, you wouldn't be able to call it "Blu-Ray".
Netbook is as much a form factor as Tablet PC is. I'm sure that if the industry switched and called them subnotebooks that would somehow be trademarked as well. "iPhone" is a specific item, which I agree was already trademarked. However, Intel did NOT release the "Intel Netbook" they introduced a form factor.
Sorry, still fail.
"Netbook" is an invented word, which Psion originally coined for its product. Just because somebody came up with a new use for the term doesn't invalidate Psion's claim on it.
And yes, there is a difference between an invented word and a previously used one. If Hyundai decided to market a car called the Grand Prix, GM couldn't stop them, since that nameplate came from an existing place name. If they decided to call that car the Escalade, though, GM would have a case, since they dropped a wad of dough on a consultant to create that name for them.
If you look at the history of trademarked items - it is specifically the invented names that lose trademark status.
Those moving stairs you ride to the second floor in a mall...everyone knows they're "escalators"
"The word escalator lost its proprietary status and its capital "e" in 1950 when the U.S. Patent Office ruled that the word "escalator" had become just a common descriptive term for moving stairways." (from History of the Escalator)
If everyone refers to these small form laptops as Netbooks - Psion would reasonably lose their Trademark status over the name.
There are several others that have either lost theirs or eventually will lose theirs such as:
Kerosene
Band-Aid
Scotch-Tape
Photoshop
This is all terribly sad. At one point, Psion was the only manufacturer to create the box (Psion Series 5) and the operating system (EPOC OS), but gave up the ghost when faced with turbulence at the end of the dot.com boom. What they had in the original netbook was the absolute best combination of form factor and operating system with the technology available at that time. By giving the OS away to Symbian and giving up on consumer electronics, Psion basically gave up on early smartphones, leaving it to Treo and others. But what really killed them was Microsoft -not in its dominance this time, but in the suckiness of Windows CE on clamshell PDA's. People saw these more frequently -horrible lookalike, crash alike failures from Casio, HP, NEC, and others, and rarely saw the British jewels created by Psion, that people assumed all clamshell PDA's just sucked.
Palm almost died this death by Windows Mobile (CE), and is just escaping (maybe) with their new OS and Pre phone.
What netbooks should be are what the first netbook by Psion promised to be: instant on, portable, wireless, great keyboard, 8-10hrs battery, and instant off. Windows is again killing the category by proving to everyone that a netbook is just a really small and barely usable Windows laptop. Runs acceptably well with XP and not so great with VISTA, but hey, you get what you pay for -so goes Microsoft thinking.
netbooks should do what the Nokia 810 achieves and what iPhone maddeningly dances around -true portable internet appliance. The clamshell formfactor needs a hero, but not one that boots up Vista like the Fujitsu 820, or costs over $2000 like the Sony UX50 UMPC. Psion shouldn't be suing, but updating its Revo with a color screen, Li battery, Wifi, and maybe a phone, using Linux or EPOC 6.0. It should offer an updated, wireless, Series 5mx. And simply put, if they merely offered their netbook Pro, which they sucked up and failed by using Windows CE, by updating with built in wireless and a working Linux and sold it for $500 to $700, they would sell these hand over fist.
I've been bellyaching about this on my blog entries below:
http://golfism.wordpress.com/2009/03/02/top-12-features-not-yet-found-on-any-one-netbook/
http://golfism.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/the-protonetbook/
http://golfism.wordpress.com/2009/01/31/12-things-i-hate-about-iphone/
My Psion series 5 was awsome. I used it in Highschool and College for note taking and the 2x AA batteries would last for a full week before giving out. Ultimately gave it up in my junior year for my Thinkpad T30, but was an amazing piece of hardware.