Google vs. the Family of Philip K. Dick

I knew that Google had a phone called the Nexus that uses the Android operating system. But it wasn't until I recently re-read Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? that I put the words "Android" and "Nexus" together and they clicked. 

In Dick's novel (and in the movie it spawned, Blade Runner), the most highly sophisticated androids are called Nexus 6s.

When Google first came out with the Nexus 1 for Android in 2010, the Dick family was already onto them. At the time, the Wall Street Journal reported that Dick's daughter, Isa Dick Hackett, sent Google a cease-and-desist letter warning them not to use the "Nexus" brand name, or a lawsuit would follow.

Google did end up using the name "Nexus," but the issue still wasn't settled even as late as 2014, when Google was actually due to launch the Nexus 6. According to several sources, there was suspicion that Google might call the phone the Nexus X instead of the Nexus 6 because of the legal issues (and, of course, because the phone was a highly sophisticated homicidal android virtually indistinguishable from humans without sophisticated empathy testing).

As Chris Matyszczyk wrote in an article for CNET, the name "Nexus" had to be more than a coincidence, and it was legitimate for Dick's family to call Google to account:

Naturally, one wouldn't dream of accusing Google of having some kind of disregard for intellectual property (facetiousness intended). And the word "nexus" has been used in many contexts. Moreover, just because you're a character in a novel, it doesn't mean you immediately get legal protection. It seems to be one of those nuanced problems that lawyers find lucrative.

The word "Droid," however, was deemed different. It was thought to be so characteristic of the "Star Wars" series that Verizon paid Lucasfilm a fee to license the name.

Perhaps "Star Wars" is simply a more famous movie than "Blade Runner." Perhaps Verizon is trying to be honorable in its business dealings. Perhaps, though, in such instances, it sometimes depends on whose pockets and determination are the deepest.

"You have got to be kidding me," says Nexus-6 Roy Batty.

By the end of 2014, the whole issue was eventually settled out of court with a confidential settlement amount, and Google released the Nexus 6. I hope that Hackett got lots and lots of money to let them use the model name her father invented.