Dell Aims to Free "Netbook" for All

A software developer who claims the trademark on the word netbook would like us all to stop throwing the term around freely, but Dell isn’t about to comply.

Netbook, the term given to small, sub-notebooks that are made for short-term, network-enabled, portable experiences is trademarked as property of Symbian OS developer Psion. Specifically, the company claims rights to “netBook,” after its own products that haven’t been on the market since the earlier part of this decade.

Google even respected the trademark and decided not to advertise netbooks with the term “netbook” on its network.

Dell isn’t having any of that, however, and filed a petition for the cancellation of the trademark. Dell argues that Psion is not, and has no plans of, making use of the trademark, thus abandoning the trademark.

Dell also poses that “the term ‘netbook’ has been widely used by computer the media, and consumers to refer to a subset of ‘notebook’ computers are small inexpensive.”

We’ll keep you posted on just who will get to use the term “netbook,” but until any solid decision is reached, we’ll still be using it full time.