Name dropping
A German company called Smartbook AG has understandably objected to the appropriation of the term ‘smartbook', by communications technology giant Qualcomm. It has obtained a restraining order against Qualcomm using the term in Germany without saying the term is exclusively reserved for Smartbook AG.
Qualcomm is trying to create a new product category to describe a mini-notebook with smartphone functionality. Smartbook is the obvious name to choose, and Qualcomm will be hoping it will become as ubiquitous as ‘netbook', which Intel persuaded the market to use when describing mini-notebooks using its Atom CPU.
A new generation on low power chipsets, such as Qualcomm's Snapdragon and NVIDIA's Tegra, claim to offer the processing needed to run a mini-notebook but at a fraction of the power requirement of Intel's Atom. This, in theory, will mean they can run all day on one battery charge and their built-in 3G modems will offer a phone-like user experience.
If Qualcomm is successful in making the smartbook term as generally used as netbook already is, that will be a major step towards the widespread acceptance of the concept. However, it's certainly going to struggle to do that in Germany.
"Internet sites of the Qualcomm Inc. such as www.hellosmartbook.com and Internet sites of the German branch office Qualcomm CDMA GmbH, which refer to the US website of the Qualcomm Inc., were already blocked for users with a German IP address", said Dirk Pick, CEO of the Smartbook AG.
"We are confronted with an almost absurd but at the same time bold attack against our brand name. It is Qualcomm who forced us to implement defensive measures. We will protect our brand."
The action seems to be limited to Qualcomm's activities in Germany for now, but it could spread. Earlier this year, ruggedized mobile PC maker Psion was involved in legal action with Intel and Dell over the term netbook, having used the term for one of its mini-notebooks.
Psion and Intel reached an "amicable agreement" in June, which probably means Intel gave Psion some go-away money, and we wouldn't be surprised to see this action settled in a similar way.
