Save the Netbooks

Save the Netbooks is a grassroots campaign web site founded to defend the term netbook from trademark action by Psion Teklogix.
It was established on 17 February 2009, half way through a three month amnesty proposed in a cease and desist letter delivered to some users of the term on 23 December 2008, and publicized Dell's "Petition for Cancellation". Hosted on Google App Engine, it features a countdown timer to the end of March 31 2009 deadline specified in the letter, a blog and Twitter and Facebook communities.
The goal of the campaign is to keep the term netbook in the public lexicon by raising awareness around the issue in the hope that the threats are withdrawn or the marks are found to be unenforceable.
On the basis that the petition to cancel filed had little chance of not being successful, the campaign declared victory 48 hours after launching, continuing related efforts to lift the AdWords ban and participate in the following debate.
History
In 1996 Psion started applying for trademarks for a line of netBook products, the first of which was released in 1999. International trademarks were issued but the models failed to gain popularity and are now discontinued (except for providing accessories, maintenance and support to existing users).
According to opponents of Psion's trademark enforcement, the genesis of what the media and general tech community now refers to as the "netbook" began in January 2005 with the announcement of the One laptop per child. The platform began to grow in strength with release was the Asus Eee PC which was launched in October 2007. Prompted by the success of these earlier products and Intel's popularisation of the term, most laptop computer manufacturers released a product using the new generic term netbook during 2008, including Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo.
Psion Teklogix started to take action in December 2008.
Missions
The campaign states the following missions:
Mission One
; Reverse the Google AdWords "netbook" ban
Mission One is to reverse the Google AdWords ban on ads containing the term netbook provided a pro forma trademark complaint for participants to submit (in addition to the one submitted by the site itself).
The second phase was a similar approach, only in the form of an exception from an AdWords advertiser rather than a complaint from a member of the public. The group later posted a 60 second video showing that it was able to create ads using netbook in the title, text, url and keywords.
Mission Two
; File a Petition to Cancel "netbook" trademark with USPTO
Mission Two was to file a petition to cancel with the USPTO on the grounds of abandonment and genericness. Having found a domestic representative a petition was prepared but on attempting to file it was discovered that Dell Computer had just submitted a similar petition. Dell claimed not only abandonment and genericness, but also fraud alleging that a Sr. Product Manager at Psion Teklogix made a sworn declaration signed
under penalty of perjury that they had used the trademark "in commerce on or in connection with all goods listed in the above-identified registration," and that they had "used the above-identified trademark in commerce for five years after of registration November 21, 2000."
Mission Three
thumb
; Relentless, Gratuitous, Generic use of the term "Netbook"
Mission Three called for the relentless, gratuitous, generic use of the term "netbook" and provided a "Netbook Netbook Netbook" graphic inspired by Gizmodo Australia.

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