‘Netbook’ term set free as Intel/Psion battle over
A legal battle between Intel and Psion Teklogix has been ‘settled amicably’ allowing the term ‘netbook’ to be used freely.


The legal battle over the "netbook" trademark between Intel and Psion Teklogix has been settled out of court.
Psion posted a statement on its website this week that said: "The litigation has been settled through an amicable agreement under which Psion will voluntarily withdraw all of its trademark registrations for "Netbook". Neither party accepted any liability."
It also said the company has waived rights to the word so other companies are free to use the now familiar term.
Intel launched a case to free up netbook as a generic phrase in February of this year as although Psion had registered it as a trademark in the 1990s, its own netbooks had been out of production since 2003. Psion insisted that it was still selling the product after that date although revenue had fallen dramatically.
IT PRO requested comment from Intel but a spokesperson could only reiterate that the "situation was settled amicably."
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Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.
Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.
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