| Exclusive Deal | While supplies last, save 40% off over 40 iPhone 5 and iPhone 4/4S cases and chargers as well as Samsung S III cases at Kensington.com. Use coupon code 'SAVE40%' at checkout to receive this exclusive discount. |
Motorola Solutions is to acquire UK-based Psion. The sale will see the the rugged device maker be bought by the remaining section of Motorola, not currently owned by Google, at an agreed price of $200 million. Motorola Solutions hopes the deal will help it cut costs and to strengthen its mobile computing portfolio.
Qualcomm can no longer sell products that carry the "smartbook" name in Germany, as Smartbook AG has filed a restraining order against Qualcomm, Digitimes said on Tuesday. If Qualcomm fails to comply, it faces an equivalent fine of nearly $358,000 or an arrest for contempt. Smartbook AG CEO Dirk Pick says Qualcomm's German website, which divert users to the US page, are blocked to Internet users with German IP addresses.
Intel today confirmed previous rumors that it had reached a settlement with Psion over the use of the term "netbook." An official for the semiconductor company told the Register that the two have struck an agreement out of court but hasn't said what the terms of the deal would be. An earlier tip had suggested Psion had agree to waive any trademark claims to the word "netbook."
Intel and Psion are said today to have reached a settlement in their mutual lawsuits over the use of the term "netbook." The latter company is reported by BlogEEE as having agreed to drop its claims to the word and would let Dell and other PC makers use the word to describe their PCs without demanding royalties or threatening lawsuits. What, if anything, Intel would offer in compensation hasn't been detailed.
Intel has issued an official response to Psion's countersuit accusing it of infringing on the "netbook" trademark. The semiconductor company's objections, filed late last week, reject the basic claim that Psion is actively selling any of its old Netbook models; Psion's own website lists 2003's Netbook Pro as a discontinued product and contradicts its own claims, Intel said. The firm also insists that it had tried filing for a trademark on "netbook" but that it hadn't been aware of an existing trademark.
Psion today responded to challenges by Dell and Intel over its trademark on the term "netbook" by claiming that the computers are still sold. A company spokesperson acknowledges to jkOnTheRun that actual manufacturing of the Netbook Pro has stopped but that sales are still ongoing and would thus show that Psion continues to depend on the trademark of its system for commercial success.
Dell has volunteered to dispute Psion's "netbook" trademark itself, a petition (PDF) sent to the US Patent Office reveals. The filing asks the government body to retire the trademark as the original Netbook systems have long since been out of production and Psion has no plans to start building the systems again. It further accuses Psion senior product manager Herb Turzer of lying when he said Psion was actively using the term as late as 2005; the last model to use the name was the Netbook Pro, in 2003.
Sites using the term "netbook" to refer to the recent wave of mini notebooks are starting to receive cease and desist letters over its alleged infringement of a trademark for a Psion device with a similar name, say site owners reporting their problems to jkOnTheRun. The largely defunct PDA maker has claimed that various enthusiast pages are inadvertently using the name of its discontinued netBook and netBook Pro devices and is asking the sites to phase out use of the term by the end of March. Psion doesn't say what the consequences will be but warns that continued use will "damage" its trademarks.
