Google Nexus One phone lands in trouble

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Deborah Moore

08 January, 2010

Google has landed in a row over the name of its phone 'Nexus One' after author Philip K Dick's family members have alleged that the name has been lifted from one of the author's classic works.

SHORTLY AFTER the announcement of its plans to launch the Nexus One mobile phone, Google has landed in a dispute stemming from the name ‘Nexus’.

Family members of author Philip K Dick have raised objection at the use of the name ‘Nexus One’ by the search engine czar. According to reports, the family claims that Google has lifted the name from one of Philip K Dick’s classic sci-fi novels, ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,’ which was adapted into a movie by the name of Blade Runner later in 1982.

In the novel, the protagonist Rick Deckard is assigned a mission to eliminate a rogue android model which is called the ‘Nexus 6’. They say that considering the fact that the phone runs on Google Android operating system, the name ‘Nexus One’ has evidently been pilfered.

Reportedly, author Dick’s family had warned Google about the infringement issue much before, when the product was in its manufacturing stage, but the search engine giant turned a deaf ear towards the issue. The Dick family has now sent a letter to Google, insisting that being a trademark violation, the name should be axed within 10 days.

On the other hand, Google has claimed that the name ‘Nexus One’ was in no way lifted from Dick’s novel. The name just uses the word ‘nexus’, which means “a place where things converge.”