Google Dreams of Nexus One Lawsuits

By Dena Cassella December 16, 2009

The daughter of the late and great author Philip K. Dick, writer of countless science fiction novels, says she was “shocked and dismayed” by Google’s choice to name its new phone the “Nexus One.” As many others have noted, the Nexus One is a reference to the futuristic cyborgs from Blade Runner which was based off of Dick’s book “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” We understand that Google is going for a whole cyborg-themed Android phone collection—we get it—but the difference is that Motorola asked permission from writer and director George Lucas to refer to its latest smartphone as the “Droid,” those darling robots from the Star Wars movies.

Engadget reported on Monday that the mysterious Google phone was to be named “Nexus One” due to the documents that HTC, the Taiwanese company that is manufacturing the phone, filed with the Federal Communications Commission. And to further confirm the suspicions, Google filed an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office last week Friday to claim the name “Nexus One.”

Isa Dick Hackett, Dick’s daughter and the president of his Electric Shepherd Productions, says she is currently discussing the Nexus situation with her legal counsel. Hackett says she thinks her father would have been excited about the cell phone homage to his cyborg characters and that she would have been happy to discuss the naming with Google, but they never reached out to her.

So far Google has denied it is selling any phone by that name, but did disclose that one is being tested.

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