Psion PLC announces that Psion and Intel Corporation have settled the trade mark cancellation and infringement litigation brought in the Northern District of California relating to the ‘Netbook' trademark registration.

The litigation has been settled through an amicable agreement under which Psion will voluntarily withdraw all of its trademark registrations for ‘Netbook'. Neither party accepted any liability. In light of this amicable agreement, Psion has agreed to waive all its rights against third parties in respect of past, current or future use of the ‘Netbook' term.

They don't say exactly what caused this change of heart, probably because saying "Intel gave us a stack of cash and told us to piss off" doesn't sound very professional. [SlashGear via CrunchGear]

French web site Blogeee reports that the two companies, locked in a somewhat ridiculous legal dance for the past several months, have reached a settlement.

Few details have surfaced regarding the settlement, but according to Blogeee, Psion all but gave up the fight and has agreed to "allow" other computer makers to use the term netbook. Mum's the word on what concessions, if any, Intel gave up to Psion.

So, the long terrible debate over who could say netbook and who couldn't is apparently over. It's also a Sunday, so, there's that too. [Blogeee via Liliputing]

Dell has filed a cancellation request with the USPTO for Psion's trademark on the word "netbook," which, as Dell asserts, has become a generic term for small, crappy-but-cheap computers that everybody wants for some reason. Psion did actually use to make something called The Netbook, but it's really old and they haven't sold it for a long time.

As Rob points out, Dell's been very careful not to use the term so far—so has Sony, though it's more of a marketing thing for the Vaio P—but obviously they've got their eye on it. Given who's fighting who, I'd squeeze the word tight, since they aren't going to own it for a whole lot longer. [USPTO via BBG]

JK on the Run was in touch with Psion recently, and let it be known that Google had completed an investigation into the trademark claim. The result is Google officially recognizes the fact that "netbook" is a protected trademark.

"Google does these investigations as they are impacted when they run ads on their network. The determination by Google that the term "netbook" is duly registered and protected has prompted them to inform their ad customers that the term can no longer be used in Google ads," wrote JK's James Kendrick.

No Google support = Game Set Match? [JK On the Run via Boing Boing]

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Much love,
Giz

p.s. Netbook.

[Gearlog]

It's Atom-powered, of course, with 1GB memory and up to 32GB of SSD storage, and crazily jams in Korean wireless broadband WiBro, digital TV receivers, HSDPA, WiMAX, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. Its touchscreen is a respectable 1024x600 pixels, and while the keyboard may challenge the fat-fingered, the machine can run XP, Vista or Linux. Skinny-fingered netbook fans will have to hold their horses though as there's no info on price or whether it'll make it over the Pacific. [Aving]