When is a smartbook not a Smartbook..?

Psion only recently settled its trademark dispute over the use of the term ‘netbook’ to refer to small portables other than the one it used to manufacture, but now another company is complaining about a similar name.

This dispute is all about the word ‘smartbook’, which has been adopted for small, sub-netbook devices that are designed to offer smartphone-like features in a more comfortable form factor (not unlike the Nokia N900, in fact).

The problem is that German company Smartbook claims to already own the trademark on the name and it’s flexed its IP muscle by sending a cease and desist notice to a German blog.

Such notices are standard stuff when it comes to defending trademarks against dilution through generic use, but this one is a little odd. As the owner of Netbooknews.de points out, rather than make a legal request to a blog that’s simply repeating the term, it would make more sense for Smartbook to go straight to the source.

In this case, the source is Qualcomm, who first coined the term ‘smartbook’ earlier this year to describe lightweight laptops that are powered by its Snapdragon processor (as used in the Toshiba TG01). Processor manufacturers Freescale and ARM have also been using the term since this year’s Computex trade show. Maybe their letters are in the post…

Update: Qualcomm has since been served with a restraining order by Smartbook, according to jkOnTheRun.