News

Estate of Philip K. Dick to sue Google over use of 'nexus'

Claims to own the rights to 'nexus' in an android context

Estate of Philip K. Dick to sue Google over use of 'nexus'
|

In much the same way that cities support a teeming community of rats, foxes, cockroaches, and other scavenging animals, the business world sustains a huge number of lawyers with endless litigation over patents, copyrights, and trademarks.

We spent most of last year reporting on the litigious activities of Tim Langdell and his company Edge Games, and as I write Nokia is embroiled in a legal battle with Apple over numerous technology patents which it believes Apple has infringed.

Now that Google's Nexus One has officially been released, the estate of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick has joined the ranks of the litigious by announcing plans to sue Google over the use of the word 'nexus'.

Philip K. Dick is famous for writing, among other things, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which was adapted for the screen as Blade Runner. The story is about a group of rogue 'Nexus-6' androids trying to prolong their lives.

Dick's daughter Isa Dick Hackett told the New York Times that she was “shocked and dismayed” by Google's audacious use of the word 'nexus'. “We were never consulted, no requests were made, and we didn’t grant any sort of permissions.”

The difficulty with Ms Dick's claim is that 'nexus' - meaning 'link' or 'connection' - is a word that long predates Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, it can be traced back to the 17th century, and comes from the Latin 'nex-, nectere', a binding together.

Google has claimed that it's using 'nexus' in its generic sense, and since Dick never registered the word as a trademark it's up to the Dick estate to prove that Google is lying - i.e., that it intends to trade on the association with Blade Runner.

If this seems familiar, it is. Tim Langdell's infamous copyright action against Mobigame for use of the title Edge seemed unfathomable to most since 'edge' is a generic word, unlike 'Coke' or 'Sellotape'. It turns out that what Langdell owns the rights to is the word 'edge' specifically in a video game context.

Perhaps the Dick estate owns the rights to the word 'Nexus' in an Android context. (It doesn't. I just wanted to drop that joke.)

Unfortunately for Google, Motorola has set a discouraging precedent by licensing the word 'Droid' - a contraction of 'android', which has existed since the 18th century - from George Lucas.

Rob Hearn
Rob Hearn
Having obtained a distinguished education, Rob became Steel Media's managing editor, now he's no longer here though.