Psion Fights Back: “We Still Sell Our Netbook ® Pro”

Looks like the company is finally going on the PR offensive, asserting in a statement sent to jkontherun that they continue to sell their Netbook Pro product, even if manufacturing ceased a long time ago:

In 2006, Psion in fact had multi-million dollar sales of the Netbook ® Pro computer in both the US and the EU. The bulk of sales were (and continue to be) in the highly specialised supply chain logistics area – perhaps not the easiest thing for third parties to get visibility on, but nevertheless, real sales to real customers in the US. And those real sales to real customers in the US continue even to this day. Attached is a typical Netbook ® Pro sales flyer (not included here), so you can see that Psion really were (and are) branding this computer as a ‘Netbook’.

I can quite understand why people might have assumed that sales ceased a while back – it’s not as if the product has been in Best Buy. But those people simply had no access to Psion’s confidential sales information.

Now this is the kind of arguing Psion should doin public, to support its cold and technical legal maneuverings to reassert ownership over the term netbook (note the incessant use of the ® mark in their statement). Ultimately, it’s still an uphill battle for the company, thanks to its failure to vigorously protect its trademark .

It must seem frustrating to Psion that they—a company that primarily does B2B—have to bring their case to the court of public opinion. But unfortunately, that’s what it will take to steal the thunder from Dell and Intel.

(image from source)