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Our good friend James Kendrick at jkontherun is reporting that several blogs (not jkontherun or MobilitySite as of yet, to the best of my knowledge) have received requests from fabled consumer electronics pioneer Psion (they even still exist? Golly…)  to cease and desist using the term Netbook as they still have it under copywrite. netBook was the marketing name of Psion’s too little too late attempt to stay in the PDA/Mobile Device game, also known as the Psion Series 7 Organizer (catchy…) which was EOLed several years before the appearance of the Asus Eee.

I have a feeling that they would have a very tough row to hoe if they actually tried to enforce said copywrite as the term is fairly neutral and has been widely adopted on a grass roots level to indicate the mini-notebook computers so in vogue currently. Millions of “Netbooks” have already been sold, with tens of millions expected to move in 2009. The major vendors have now adopted it (with a few holdouts) but they certainly did not coin the usage or even claim to have done so. The fact that there are no legal legs under this complaint is made pretty clear by the fact they are going after fan blogs and not, apparently, the vendors themselves. When one has no bait, you try to land little fish.

However, out of respect for my fond memories of Psion products, I will attempt to personally curtail my use of the word Netbook. I will try not to use the term Netbook (or Netbooks) in my blog posts or my daily life using the device formerly known as a Netbook. Yep, no more Netbook for me. I will cancel plans to name my second child, should I have one, Netbook and forget all about my dream of tattooing Netbook across the small of my back. The term Netbook will cease to be part of my vocabulary, and if anyone says “Netbook” to me I will look shocked and say “Netbook, vas ist dat verdammte Netbook? Do you mean a Psion Series 7 Organizer?” It will be as if I never heard the word Netbook at all, my tongue will be free of all netbooking, as if in a Netbook free world. Good riddence to Netbook I say, never again shall I type the word. No more Netbook. If I ever type Netbook again, it will be too soon. This is a Netbook free zone. Farewell Netbook, we hardly knew ye….Alas poor Netbook…I knew him, Psion. A device of infinite jest. For whom does the netbook toll?

Or…maybe I’ll just have another egg nog.

Merry Christmas everyone, and especially to the Psion legal department. What a bunch of cards….

Zealot (444 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

By day a department manager and writer for a major network device vendor...by night Zealot stalks the mean magnetic streets, striking fear into the hearts of bandwidth abusers and theme park mascots. Zealot has been involved with mobile devices for more than a decade now, starting off with dumb phones, moving to PDAs and then to smartphones, notebooks and netbooks with the odd PMP thrown in. Most of his mobile time currently is spent on a Treo Pro, Zune HD, Thinkpad T61, Gigabyte M912M or a Hackintoshed Compaq Mini 704. He proudly groks the Geek community and considers himself a Neo Maxi Zune Dweebie (thanks Will Wheaton!).