

Google stole Nexus name, says PKD family - chaosmachine
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10426802-92.html

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grellas
This reminds me of a trademark suit out of the 1980s, when the Lexis-Nexis
people sued Toyota when it introduced its "Lexus" luxury car to the U.S.
market.

From a Wikipedia article summarizing this dispute: "When Toyota launched the
Lexus line of luxury vehicles in 1987, Mead Data Central sued for trademark
infringement on the grounds that consumers of upscale products (such as
lawyers) would confuse "Lexus" with "Lexis". A market-research survey
undertaken at the time asked consumers to identify the spoken word "Lexis";
the survey showed that a minuscule quantity of people thought of the
computerized legal search system, a similarly minuscule number thought of
Toyota's luxury car division, and an overwhelming plurality thought of a soap
opera character. Mead lost on appeal in 1989 when the Court of Appeals for the
2nd Circuit held that there was little chance of consumer confusion. Today,
the two companies have an amiable business relationship, and in 2002
implemented a joint promotion called 'Win A Lexus On Lexis!'"
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LexisNexis>)

If a survey were taken today asking people to identify the spoken word
"Nexus," I would suspect that responses would be all over the board, with only
a very few associating it with the Nexus-6 androids (ironically, a good number
might even associate it with the Nexis search service - maybe the Lexis-Nexis
people ought to litigate the other half of their name, just for
completeness!).

Of course, the word "nexus" itself is of ancient origin, deriving from the
Latin fourth declension noun ("nexus," meaning a "bond," "binding," or
"fastening").

On a final trademark footnote, if a fictional character acquires a "secondary
meaning" (meaning that the public strongly associates it with a particular
source, e.g., "Mickey Mouse" = Disney), this can be an independent basis for
infringement. Can't even begin to imagine this to have happened here, however.

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seldo
This is such a silly lawsuit. Nexus is a generic word, long used by geeks to
describe anything vaguely cool with a centralized component.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus>

There are 4 magazines, 2 video games and at least 5 different pieces of
software (the very first version of WWW, written by Tim Berners-Lee, was
called Nexus). There are also 5 bands and another 5 albums called Nexus.

~~~
mreid
I largely agree that it is a silly lawsuit but, to play devil's advocate for a
second, there are a few factors that make it slightly less cut and dried.

Firstly, Google's phone is the Nexus One while the androids' model in
"Bladerunner"/"Do Androids Dream..." was Nexus Six - presumably the last in a
series beginning with something like Nexus One.

Secondly, how come the "Droid" has to mention George Lucas's claim to the term
but the "Nexus One" does not need to refer to PKD?

Taking off my devil's advocate hat, I think that the name "Nexus One" was
clearly inspired by Bladerunner (engineers/nerds working on a platform called
"Android" was always going to lead to lots of robotic cultural references) but
that does not mean the estate of PKD should be able to make a buck from it.
The use of "Nexus One" in this way should be a sign that "Bladerunner" has
become an important cultural touchstone, at least in tech circles.

~~~
rwhitman
Ok but the word "Droid" was indeed coined in Star Wars, whereas "Nexus One"
was never coined anywhere, since the Nexus-1 model was never mentioned in the
book or the movie. Its just a vague allusion

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wglb
This seems a stretch, as there, so far as i know, no merchandising based on
stuff in PKD's work. Give that science fiction is an imagination-rich medium,
many things that are realized were first mentioned in science fiction. Would
the Frank Herbert estate clamp down on manufacturers of Crysknife?
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crysknife>. Or any of the concepts in Larry
Niven's Ringworld, like the Sunflowers, or the _cziltang brone_? And who would
own the IP rights there--Larry Niven, or the Ringworld Engineers?

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chaostheory
The lawsuit's main weakness is that the masses aren't familiar with a cult
movie called Blade Runner, and even less of them know of Philip K. Dick and
his literary works even though a lot of his books have been turned into smash
box office movies.

There is no confusion.

In my eyes, Google if anything used the name to pay homage to Philip K Dick,
much like Apple tried to name a computer after Sagan.

~~~
chaosmachine
_In 1994, Apple Computer began developing the Power Macintosh 7100. They chose
the internal code name "Carl Sagan", the reference being that the mid-range
PowerMac 7100 should make Apple "billions and billions."Though the internal
project name was never used in public marketing, it did come up in Usenet
postings and news of the name grew from there. When Sagan learned of this he
sued Apple Computer to force the use of a different project name. Other models
released conjointly had code names such as "Cold fusion" and "Piltdown Man",
and Sagan was displeased at being associated with what he considered
pseudoscience. (He was at the time writing a book discrediting pseudoscience.)
Though Sagan lost the lawsuit Apple engineers complied with his demands anyway
and renamed the project "BHA" (for Butt-Head Astronomer). Sagan promptly sued
Apple for libel over the new name, claiming that it subjected him to contempt
and ridicule, but he lost this lawsuit as well. Still, the 7100 saw another
name change: it was finally referred to internally as "LAW" (Lawyers Are
Wimps)._

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan>

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ars
They have no case.

You can't copyright a name (especially not one which is also an english word),
and trademarks only apply within their specific commercial category, and books
(even SiFi books) and phones (or computers) are not in the same category.

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mikedouglas
Since when is it theft to make a literary reference?

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rubyrescue
am i the only one that didn't immediately know PKD was Philip K Dick and now
feel a bit sheepish (no pun intended)...

~~~
tdonia
PKD also stands for Polycystic Kidney Disease which was my first thought.

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aston
Apple stole apple name, says McIntosh family.

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julius_geezer
Heck, who will speak for Henry Miller?

