Intel’s Netbook.com Under Cybersquatting Statute — Psion Wants

Netbook trademark owner claims Intel violating Cybersquatting law.

Last month I warned regarding registering domain names with “netbook” in them. Although the term is generally thought of us an inexpensive laptop used for accessing the internet and for light computing tasks, a firm named Psion has a trademark to the term for computers. It has sold a laptop called Netbook.

Recently, Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) filed to have Psion’s trademark stripped due to non-use. Then Intel (NASDAQ: INTL), which is a key player in the netbook market by providing chips, jumped on the bandwagon with Dell. Intel owns Netbook.com. Intel purchased the domain name in 2008 and it right now forwards to Intel.com.

Psion has counter sued and requested that Intel hand over the domain name Netbook.com, writes the blog SaveTheNetbooks.com (link removed since no longer active). The claim is based on the anticybersquatting law that is frequently used to sue cybersquatters for $100,000 per violation.

SaveTheNetbooks.com was launched to help “save” the name netbook from Psion’s trademark claims.

This will be an interesting case to watch. It’s not everyday you see a Fortune 500 firm alleged to be cybersquatting.