February 20, 2009

BOX BUILDING BEHEMOTH DELL is picking on poor beleageured Psion, trying to prise the last thing of any value the British company owns out of its dying fingers.

The pioneering PDA designer and builder, which fell on hard times when palmtop computers stopped being a niche market and before they became a gloabal phenomenon, copyrighted the term 'Netbook' way back in the 1990s.

Now Dell thinks the term has become generic and has asked lawmakers in the States to wrest it from Psion's grip so the rest of the world (ie Dell) can use it freely.

Dell's men in grey suits are insisting that the company hasn't actively used the trademark name since 2003 and has no intention of creating any new products under the moniker in the foreseeable future.

The Texan company has even gone so far as to accuse Psion's senior project manager Herb Turzer of lying when he said that his company was still using the term as recently as 2005.

Dell's intentions are unclear, however, as declassifying the trademark would leave it open reregistration. We wonder who might be first in the queue to grab that one?.

Until now, a number of manufacturers which have used the term 'netbook' (with varying uses of daft capitilisation) in their marketing campaigns have reportedly been asked to cease and desist by Psion Teklogix, the Canadian company born out of the ashes of the original Brit firm, though no formal legal action has yet been taken.