• Wall Street Journal, Thursday, January 7, 2010 3:11 PM

Nexus One, the first Google-branded smartphone, was destined to have its detractors, but you'd necessarily expect they'd be from the family of science-fiction author Philip K. Dick. Yet, the family says the device's name infringes on one of Dick's most famous novels, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?," which served as the basis for the 1982 cult film "Blade Runner" -- the story follows a bounty hunter chasing androids known as Nexus-6 models.

Isa Dick Hackett, Dick's daughter and the chief executive of Electric Shepherd Productions -- an arm of the Dick estate devoted to adapting the late author's works -- contends that Google referenced that work in coming up with the name for its new phone, but the company never called her family or attorneys for permission to license the name. This wouldn't be the first time Google has drawn the ire of authors and their estates.

Read the whole story at Wall Street Journal »