Technically Legal

Google has come under fire from the estate of Philip K. Dick over the use of name Nexus. Dick wrote Do Androids Dream Electric Sheep, which was turned into the movie Blade Runner. The book and movie feature Nexus-6 model androids. Yesterday, Google released the Nexus One phone, based on the Android operating system.

The Dick estate has a tough case to make for either copyright or trademark infringement. The copyright case is hard to make lagely because it’s just one word at issue. The trademark case is difficult because the only time Nexus was used as a brand was in a book. Nexus was never used by Dick to brand an actual product in real life.

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