Science fiction writer Philip K Dick died in 1982, but his ghost has been strong-armed out of repose. His ‘estate,’ a byword for literary money-grubbing, recently threatened to sue Google for having named its new, revolutionary cellphone Nexus One. Dick’s daughter is offended that Google’s product sounds similar to the Nexus-6 brand of replicants in Dick’s landmark novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968), later made into the cult film, Blade Runner (1982). Since names can’t be copyrighted—the dictionary allows any entity to use the word ‘nexus’— Dick’s estate is stropping up for an ugly trademark fight. And there is a precedent: Verizon Wireless licensed the ‘Droid’ name from the creator and director of Star Wars, George Lucas, well before it recently launched a Motorola smartphone with the same name.
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