Psion Sues Intel in Netbook Trademark Case

As I previously wrote, Psion hit back verbally against Intel and Dell in terms of their moves to invalidate Psion's trademark on the term "netbook." Things have just gotten more interesting, as Psion has answered Intel's "Petition for Cancellation" with a lawsuit.

The grassroots "Save the Netbook" campaign has obtained court documents (.PDF) in the matter. While both Dell and Intel state that Psion abandoned the term, discontinued the device (above), and that the term has now become generic, Psion submitted sales figures in its lawsuit and also demanded that Intel surrender the domain "netbook.com" under cybersquatting laws.

Psion also asserted that Intel has committed unfair trade practices and unfair competition.

Here are the sales figures provided by Psion:

1999 - $62,800
2000 - $7,874
2001 - $7,335
2002 - $30,566
2003 - $24,503
2004 - $780,096
2005 - $1,709,433
2006 - $2,073,207
2007 - $586,680
2008 - $60,900
2009 - $13,640

"Save the Netbooks" estimates that:

Assuming around 15,000,000 netbooks were sold in 2008 at a conservative $200 per unit (and that our calculations are correct) Psion had a "netbook" market share of two thousandths of one percent in 2008 - rather low for a company claiming to hold a monopoly over the mark.

Unfortunately, if they had a valid trademark, didn't abandon it, etc. etc., their market share isn't really the point, now is it?

An interesting point in the documents:

As a result of Plaintiff’s long use of the NETBOOK mark in association with Psion’s products and services, the NETBOOK mark has come to be recognized by the relevant consuming public as being sponsored by, approved by, authorized by, associated with or affiliated with Psion.

It did? I don't think anyone on a jury would say they associated the term with Psion. And yes, Psion is asking for a jury trial.

Now, Psion didn't sue Dell, because it's Intel that's been promoting the term "netbook" (and "nettop") and it's Intel that owns netbook.com. In case you haven't noticed, this is starting to get ugly.