Google embroiled in Nexus One naming controversy

Does Google dream of electric sheep? At the moment, the company is more likely to be having nightmares about them, given the furore over the name of the search giant’s new smartphone.

The phone was christened the Nexus One, and the family of author Philip K Dick claim that the moniker has been ripped off from his book “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”

You may know the work better as the film Blade Runner, which was loosely based on the book’s central plot line.

In the book (and indeed film), the Nexus 6 are androids that a bounty hunter has to kill off.

The Dick family are less than happy and claim that the Nexus name is clearly related to Philip’s work because Google’s phone runs the Android operating system.

They are also displeased because Google failed to open any sort of a dialogue or discussion whatsoever with the family before they launched the phone.

“We feel this is a clear infringement of our intellectual-property rights,” the Wall Street Journal reported Isa Dick Hackett, Philip’s daughter, as saying.

“Our legal team is dealing head-on with this,” she added.

For its part, Google says that Nexus simply refers to its traditional meaning of a meeting point – a place where computer and phone converge.

We expect that, despite the android connection, any case against Google won’t be going anywhere particularly fast.