Psion Responds to Dell and Intel Court Petitions

malware · Feb 28, 2009

Here's a quick reminder before going straight to the story. Recently both Intel and Dell filed petitions asking for the cancellation of Psion Teklogix' "Netbook" trademark. Both manufacturers said they need the "Netbook" term liberated from any trademark responsibility, so they can use it as unified term for new class of ultra-portable laptop computers designed for use on the go. Currently makers like Dell, ASUSTeK, Hewlett-Packard, Acer, Lenovo, LG Electronics, Samsung, MSI, GIGABYTE and many others sell products branded as netbooks. Today Psion responded to the legal accusations, by sending an official response to the public. The full statement, because too big, will appear after you click on the read full story marker.

In 2006, Psion in fact had multi-million dollar sales of the Netbook Pro computer in both the US and the EU. The bulk of sales were (and continue to be) in the highly specialised supply chain logistics area - perhaps not the easiest thing for third parties to get visibility on, but nevertheless, real sales to real customers in the US. And those real sales to real customers in the US continue even to this day. Attached is a typical Netbook Pro sales flyer (not included here), so you can see that Psion really were (and are) branding this computer as a 'Netbook'.

I can quite understand why people might have assumed that sales ceased a while back - it's not as if the product has been in Best Buy. But those people simply had no access to Psion's confidential sales information.

So the facts are that, although manufacture has been discontinued, sales in the US and EU have not. And its continuing sales that are important to preventing a trademark from becoming abandoned. We'll of course be setting the record straight in our court filings.

Incidentally, manufacture of the Netbook Pro had to cease prematurely not because of any lack of demand. It was because supplies of a replacement for a specialised chip controller could not be found - the Netbook Pro had very sophisticated power management, given it 8 hours of runtime and 10 days in standby, as well as instant-on (still an amazing feature in a laptop). Because of the sophisticated nature of the Netbook Pro design, a simple replacement controller could not be found and that meant that manufacture had to cease once those supplies of controllers were exhausted; it was a great pity.

I hope this clarifies the situation; Psion continues to sell the Netbook Pro computer. It's got all the invoices to prove multi-million dollar sales in the US in 2006, and sales that continue even to this day. There's been no abandonment of the trademark.

Just because we're not selling tens of thousands through Best Buy doesn't mean we're not entitled to our trademark.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

cdawall · Feb 28, 2009

hmm looks like some brands are going to have a small lawsuit sitting in there pants

eidairaman1 · Feb 28, 2009

WTG Psion, Stick it to big Business.

FordGT90Concept · Feb 28, 2009

malware said:
Currently makers like Dell, ASUSTeK, Hewlett-Packard, Acer, Lenovo, LG Electronics, Samsung, MSI, GIGABYTE and many others sell products branded as netbooks.

Psion didn't sue them so I say the trademark is null and void: the term is public domain.

nemesis.ie · Feb 28, 2009

They should grammar check their press releases.

KoD · Feb 28, 2009

From what little I know, I have to take Psion's side.

lemonadesoda · Feb 28, 2009

OMG, how refreshing to read something in "real speak" rather than "ugly aggressive lawyer threats"!

w00t to Psion! Long live Psion. :nutkick:

PS. The netbook pro was (is) a truly outstanding product, and to think that was available in 2002/3. (Previous non-pro was available in 1999 IIRC).

Let's hope Psion and ARM (and those nice new "ultra netbooks") can get something 2009 out and pimp it around.

to6ko91 · Feb 28, 2009

Psion is completely right !!! Just because some big company wants to use something doesnt mean they can no mather what especially that coming from the suckers at Intel who ware acting fags when it came to nVidia and the i7 chipsets :slap:

if i see somebody on the street with a brief case full of money doesnt mean I can walk to them and claim the brief case to be mine

Solaris17 · Feb 28, 2009

pwnt. go psion

KoD · Feb 28, 2009

FordGT90Concept said:
Psion didn't sue them so I say the trademark is null and void: the term is public domain.

A neighborhood kid steals one of your prized pink flamingos from your yard, you decide to let it go and don't notify law enforcement, etc.

Since you chose to write the flamingo off, does this mean the kid can come back and take things again, without repercussion?

to6ko91 · Feb 28, 2009

KoD said:
A neighborhood kid steals one of your prized pink flamingos from your yard, you decide to let it go and don't notify law enforcement, etc.

Since you chose to write the flamingo off, does this mean the kid can come back and take things again, without repercussion?

i.e your house :laugh:

ShinyG · Feb 28, 2009

Wow, Psion is pulling the old "we fight big business!" stunt! People are like "yeah, whatever you're fighting for, we're in!"....
Some people read that "official answer" and see "people talk", I see an immature public statement from a company that's blaming suppliers for their shrinking market and downfall! They lame more than the Big Three when they asked for bailout...
I don't like big business either, but on this story, I think Psion is taking the wrong approach, acting like cry-babies!

FordGT90Concept · Feb 28, 2009

to6ko91 said:
Psion is completely right !!! Just because some big company wants to use something doesnt mean they can no mather what especially that coming from the suckers at Intel who ware acting fags when it came to nVidia and the i7 chipsets if i see somebody on the street with a brief case full of money doesnt mean I can walk to them and claim the brief case to be mine

That's not the issue at hand. Basically, it is whether it is "Netbook" (proper noun) or "netbook." Capitalizing it implies that it is a trademarked "thing." Not many people still capitalize internet which signifies the term has been disolved into the language and taken various meanings unto itself (e.g. RADAR and radar, SONAR and sonar, LASER and laser). There was a similar dispute over "Firewire" some time ago where Apple apparently won so instead of everyone in the PC world buying rights to use the trademark from Apple, they just call it by its specification (IEEE1934) when they need to be politically correct.

Basically, I'd hate to see this turn into another ~~Firewire~~ IEEE1934 thing where only Psion can officially use the term "netbook." I'd rather not have two words for the same exact thing (like IEEE1934) just because some business wanted to sell the word.

to6ko91 · Feb 28, 2009

FordGT90Concept said:
That's not the issue at hand. Basically, it is whether it is "Netbook" (proper noun) or "netbook." Capitalizing it implies that it is a trademarked "thing." Not many people still capitalize internet which signifies the term has been disolved into the language and taken various meanings unto itself (e.g. RADAR and radar, SONAR and sonar, LASER and laser). There was a similar dispute over "Firewire" some time ago where Apple apparently won so instead of everyone in the PC world buying rights to use the trademark from Apple, they just call it by its specification (IEEE1934) when they need to be politically correct.

Basically, I'd hate to see this turn into another ~~Firewire~~ IEEE1934 thing where only Psion can officially use the term "netbook." I'd rather not have two words for the same exact thing (like IEEE1934) just because some business wanted to sell the word.

but before psion there was no netbook so they created it so its theirs

ArmoredCavalry · Mar 1, 2009

Psion just has to broker some deals with these companies now, sort of like Linksys with Apple.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/21/apple-and-cisco-settle/

Also, the large computer manufacturers may claim that the lawsuit is "silly":
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/11/apple-says-cisco-lawsuit-is-silly/

P.S. I have an iPhone, the original one.

qwerty_lesh · Mar 1, 2009

but.. but... firewires specification is IEEE1394 :slap:

to6ko91 · Mar 1, 2009

qwerty_lesh said:
but.. but... firewires specification is IEEE1394

and IEEE1394 name on a Mac is firewire and on sony is i.LINK and on Texas Instruments is Lynx and gateway had their own name :cool:

same as you having an animal and naming it cow and me coming along and saying I cant call it a cow I will call it muhujitsu :laugh:

(cool name huh :cool:

) (™)

P.S. more info on FireWire

FordGT90Concept · Mar 1, 2009

Heh, yup. That is exactly what will happen if Dell/Intel lose this battle. For the sake of simplicity, I hope they win.

pr0n Inspector · Mar 1, 2009

Imagine if Notebook was a trademark: OMFG WE ARE ALL GONNA GET SUED!!!

to6ko91 · Mar 1, 2009

pr0n Inspector said:
Imagine if Notebook was a trademark: OMFG WE ARE ALL GONNA GET SUED!!!

Pixelated · Mar 2, 2009

KoD said:
A neighborhood kid steals one of your prized pink flamingos from your yard, you decide to let it go and don't notify law enforcement, etc.

Since you chose to write the flamingo off, does this mean the kid can come back and take things again, without repercussion?

So that was YOU who stole my prized Flamingo collection!

Processor	Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 VID: 1.2125
Motherboard	GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3P rev.2.0
Cooling	Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme + Noctua NF-S12 Fan
Memory	4x1 GB PQI DDR2 PC2-6400
Video Card(s)	Colorful iGame Radeon HD 4890 1 GB GDDR5
Storage	2x 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 32 MB RAID0
Display(s)	BenQ G2400W 24-inch WideScreen LCD
Case	Cooler Master COSMOS RC-1000 (sold), Cooler Master HAF-932 (delivered)
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic + Logitech Z-5500 Digital THX
Power Supply	Chieftec CFT-1000G-DF 1kW
Software	Laptop: Lenovo 3000 N200 C2DT2310/3GB/120GB/GF7300/15.4"/Razer

System Name	All the cores
Processor	2990WX
Motherboard	Asrock X399M
Cooling	CPU-XSPC RayStorm Neo, 2x240mm+360mm, D5PWM+140mL, GPU-2x360mm, 2xbyski, D4+D5+100mL
Memory	4x16GB G.Skill 3600
Video Card(s)	(2) EVGA SC BLACK 1080Ti's
Storage	2x Samsung SM951 512GB, Samsung PM961 512GB
Display(s)	Dell UP2414Q 3840X2160@60hz
Case	Caselabs Mercury S5+pedestal
Audio Device(s)	Fischer HA-02->Fischer FA-002W High edition/FA-003/Jubilate/FA-011 depending on my mood
Power Supply	Seasonic Prime 1200w
Mouse	Thermaltake Theron, Steam controller
Keyboard	Keychron K8
Software	W10P

System Name	PCGOD
Processor	AMD FX 8350@ 5.0GHz
Motherboard	Asus TUF 990FX Sabertooth R2 2901 Bios
Cooling	Scythe Ashura, 2×BitFenix 230mm Spectre Pro LED (Blue,Green), 2x BitFenix 140mm Spectre Pro LED
Memory	16 GB Gskill Ripjaws X 2133 (2400 OC, 10-10-12-20-20, 1T, 1.65V)
Video Card(s)	AMD Radeon 290 Sapphire Vapor-X
Storage	Samsung 840 Pro 256GB, WD Velociraptor 1TB
Display(s)	NEC Multisync LCD 1700V (Display Port Adapter)
Case	AeroCool Xpredator Evil Blue Edition
Audio Device(s)	Creative Labs Sound Blaster ZxR
Power Supply	Seasonic 1250 XM2 Series (XP3)
Mouse	Roccat Kone XTD
Keyboard	Roccat Ryos MK Pro
Software	Windows 7 Pro 64

System Name	BY-2021
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (65w eco profile)
Motherboard	MSI B550 Gaming Plus
Cooling	Scythe Mugen (rev 5)
Memory	2 x Kingston HyperX DDR4-3200 32 GiB
Video Card(s)	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
Storage	Samsung 980 Pro, Seagate Exos X20 TB 7200 RPM
Display(s)	Nixeus NX-EDG274K (3840x2160@144 DP) + Samsung SyncMaster 906BW (1440x900@60 HDMI-DVI)
Case	Coolermaster HAF 932 w/ USB 3.0 5.25" bay + USB 3.2 (A+C) 3.5" bay
Audio Device(s)	Realtek ALC1150, Micca OriGen+
Power Supply	Enermax Platimax 850w
Mouse	Nixeus REVEL-X
Keyboard	Tesoro Excalibur
Software	Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Benchmark Scores	Faster than the tortoise; slower than the hare.

System Name	"Run of the mill" (except GPU)
Processor	R9 3900X
Motherboard	ASRock X470 Taich Ultimate
Cooling	Cryorig (not recommended)
Memory	32GB (2 x 16GB) Team 3200 MT/s, CL14
Video Card(s)	Radeon RX6900XT
Storage	Samsung 970 Evo plus 1TB NVMe
Display(s)	Samsung Q95T
Case	Define R5
Audio Device(s)	On board
Power Supply	Seasonic Prime 1000W
Mouse	Roccat Leadr
Keyboard	K95 RGB
Software	Windows 11 Pro x64, insider preview dev channel
Benchmark Scores	#1 worldwide on 3D Mark 99, back in the (P133) days. :)

Psion Responds to Dell and Intel Court Petitions

malware

New Member

cdawall

where the hell are my stars

eidairaman1

The Exiled Airman

FordGT90Concept

"I go fast!1!11!1!"

nemesis.ie

KoD

New Member

lemonadesoda

to6ko91

Solaris17

Super Dainty Moderator

KoD

New Member

to6ko91

ShinyG

New Member

FordGT90Concept

"I go fast!1!11!1!"

to6ko91

ArmoredCavalry

qwerty_lesh

to6ko91

FordGT90Concept

"I go fast!1!11!1!"

pr0n Inspector

to6ko91

Pixelated

New Member

System Name	ICE-QUAD // ICE-CRUNCH
Processor	Q6600 // 2x Xeon 5472
Memory	2GB DDR // 8GB FB-DIMM
Video Card(s)	HD3850-AGP // FireGL 3400
Display(s)	2 x Samsung 204Ts = 3200x1200
Audio Device(s)	Audigy 2
Software	Windows Server 2003 R2 as a Workstation now migrated to W10 with regrets.

System Name	RogueOne
Processor	Xeon W9-3495x
Motherboard	ASUS w790E Sage SE
Cooling	SilverStone XE360-4677
Memory	128gb Gskill Zeta R5 DDR5 RDIMMs
Video Card(s)	MSI SUPRIM Liquid X 4090
Storage	1x 2TB WD SN850X \| 2x 8TB GAMMIX S70
Display(s)	49" Philips Evnia OLED (49M2C8900)
Case	Thermaltake Core P3 Pro Snow
Audio Device(s)	Moondrop S8's on schitt Gunnr
Power Supply	Seasonic Prime TX-1600
Mouse	Razer Viper mini signature edition (mercury white)
Keyboard	Monsgeek M3 Lavender, Moondrop Luna lights
VR HMD	Quest 3
Software	Windows 11 Pro Workstation
Benchmark Scores	I dont have time for that.

System Name	My Computer
Processor	Intel 2600K@4.4Ghz
Motherboard	ASUS Z68
Cooling	Scythe Mugen
Memory	2x4Gb
Video Card(s)	Sapphire HD7850
Storage	1xA-Datat SSD 64GB; 1x WD RE3 500GB; 1x Maxtor 750GB
Display(s)	Dell Ultrasharp 2005FPW
Case	Antec 900 + cable management + Zalman fan ctrl
Audio Device(s)	Asus XONAR DS
Power Supply	Corsair 520HX
Software	Win 7 Pro
Benchmark Scores	I've fried plenty o' parts when not OCing. Need to start doing it again to avoid problems...

System Name	What the Sigma
Processor	i7 7700
Motherboard	Gigabyte H170-HD3
Cooling	LGA1151 Noctua NH-U12P
Memory	32GB Kingston DDR4 3600 CL15
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte Vision OC RTX 3080ti 12GB
Storage	2GB Lexar Gen3 NVME / 1x 120GB Intel 520 / and some spinny bois
Display(s)	3x DELL S2721DGF
Case	Antec P182
Power Supply	Corsair 750w
VR HMD	Oculus Quest 3
Software	Windows 10