Nexus One a replicant too far, Dick family tells Google

The estate of sci-fi writer Philip K Dick has asked Google to stop using the name 'Nexus One' to describe its new smartphone because it is too similar to the 'Nexus-6' androids described in the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

To rub salt into the wound, the new 'Googlephone', which enjoyed positive reviews when it was launched on Tuesday, uses an operating system called Android 2.1.

But the Dick family were among those who were unimpressed by the new smartphone. Yesterday they sent a letter to Google saying the use of Nexus is a trademark violation and demanded the search giant cease and desist from using the name.

At Tuesday's Nexus One launch, Google expressly denied the name was taken from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which was later adapted for the big screen as the film Bladerunner, starring Rutger Hauer (above). The company claims the new phone's name is meant to refer to the word's original meaning, of a place where things meet.

In their defence, the kind of dystopian futures that were Dick's speciality are conspicuously absent from the Nexus One's branding and marketing.

The seeming attempt to trademark what is a fairly common English word - 'nexus' goes back to the Latin verb 'nectere', meaning 'to bind' - has led critics of the Dicks to suggest they are merely after a fast buck from one of the richest companies in the world.

But Isa Dick Hackett, the daughter of Philip K Dick, is unrepentant. "Google takes first and then deals with the fallout later,"she said. "In my mind, there is a very obvious connection to my father's novel. People don't get it. It's the principle of it. It would be nice to have a dialogue. We are open to it." ·