Psion drops netbook name lawsuit

The battle over whether mini notebooks can be called netbooks is over, as Psion has setled its lawsuit against Intel.

Psion created a line of "netBooks" in the late 90s that looked a bit like today’s netbooks, but with a sliding hinge. The idea didn’t take off, and Psion let go of the trademark in 2003. But when Intel started referring to Atom-powered tiny notebooks as "netbooks," Psion raised a stink. As Ars Technica reports, the battle went back and forth, with Psion issuing cease-and-desist orders and convincing Google to drop the word "netbook" from AdSense before trying to renew the netBook trademark in 2006. A grassroots group fought back with a Save the Netbooks campaign, and Dell and Intel launched a lawsuit. Things got messy when Psion filed a countersuit alleging "willful and malicious" use of the netbook name.

Now, the warring companies have made peace in the form of a settlement with undisclosed terms. Psion won’t take legal action against any company that uses the word "netbook," and its dropping its trademark claims.

The ordeal may sound like silly quibbling, but clearing any legal worries around the netbook name has a benefit to consumers: Not everyone knows the limitations of netbooks, so marketing them as notebooks could be deceiving to the computer illiterate. Clearly definiting what a netbook is will become increasingly important as screens become larger, further blurring the line.