Well, that didn’t take long…
Just as the ”netbook” brand was disputed by original trademark owner Psion PLC, now the ”smartbook” moniker is being disputed by a German maker of laptops and netbooks, Smartbook AG.
Last weekend, the company announced that it has asked a German district court to enjoin Qualcomm and others from using the term “smartbook” on Internet sites accessible from Germany without a disclaimer stating that the use of the term in connection with portable computers in Germany is reserved exclusively to Smartbook AG.
In a prepared statement, Smartbook AG CEO Dirk Pick contended that his company faces “an almost absurd, but at the same time bold attack against our brand name,” and vowed that “We will protect our brand.” The company’s news release goes on to threaten the possibility of arrest and a €250,000 fine for failure to comply.
It’s worth noting that Smartbook AG sells at least two products that it identifies as part of a “Smartbook” line (see pictures above). The first is the ”Smartbook ZEN iD,” a 10-inch Atom-based netbook, and the other is the 12.1-inch ”Smartbook Heaven,” an Intel Core 2 Duo-based laptop. Little additional information is currently available about Smartbook AG, which appears to be a far smaller company than Qualcomm, ARM Holdings, Freescale Semiconductor, Texas Instruments and others using the term smartbook.
No doubt the ins and outs of all this will take some time to settle, but whatever the outcome, it seems apparent from recent netbook sales reports that the public’s appetite for smaller, more mobile computing devices – regardless of their name – remains voracious.
Gordon
