Oh geez here we go again. Earlier this year a company claiming to have rights to the “Netbook” name sued Qualcomm to prevent them from using the term in their products and branding. Now the same thing is happening with the word “Smartbook” which has come to mean a netbook computer that has smartphone connectivity/capabilities.

The lawsuit was filed in Germany by German company Smartbook AG who, based on their company name and fact that they have products called Smartbooks, seem to have a pretty good case. Smartbook AG issued a press release containing the following statement:

Qualcomm Inc. as well as Qualcomm CDMA “are not authorized to use without approval of the Smartbook AG the character sequence ’Smartbook’ in all notations in association with mobile computers – such as laptops (notebooks) – in the context of business communications expressed in technically retrievable Internet offers in the area of the Federal Republic of Germany without providing information that in the region of the Federal Republic of Germany any usage of the sign ’Smartbook’ in association with mobile computers is exclusively reserved to the SMARTBOOK AG.“

According to this resolution, a fine of up to EUR 250,000.00 applies – alternatively an arrest for contempt of court – in the case of a non-compliance.

“Internet sites of the Qualcomm Inc. such as www.hellosmartbook.com and Internet sites of the German branch office Qualcomm CDMA GmbH, which refer to the US website of the Qualcomm Inc., were already blocked for users with a German IP address“, according to Dirk Pick, CEO of the Smartbook AG.

“We are confronted with an almost absurd but at the same time bold attack against our brand name. It is Qualcomm who forced us to implement defensive measures. We will protect our brand.”

Those are some pretty serious consequences. I can’t say I disagree with the Smartbook AG suit – if YOUR company name was suddenly used as the entire name for a new industry wide product line you would probably do the same thing or risk your own brand being blown into an oblivion of confusion.

But hopefully these guys can all settle out of court… I happen to like the Smartbook name and how it identifies a specific group of devices with a clear feature set.

[Via jkontherun]