.gif)
Acorn Computers (2006)
Encyclopedia
Acorn Computers Ltd was a company based in Nottingham
, England
. It licensed, in early 2006, the dormant Acorn Computers
trademark
from French company Aristide & Co Antiquaire De Marques. This company sold IBM PC compatible
computers and had no connection to ARM
.
In April 2006, internet news portals claimed that the company was to relaunch. The new company announced its range before the 2006 Computer Trade Show, held at the NEC
near Birmingham, UK. At the show, the company distributed leaflets inviting people to "be part of one of the most exciting brand re-launches in UK history" by joining its reseller program.
rather than the RISC OS
operating system developed by the original Acorn Computers
and this incarnation of Acorn did not support nor license any technologies or products of the original, apart from the name and Trademark.
The reuse of the Acorn Computers Ltd name caused an amount of confusion and controversy, particularly amongst the users of the original company's products.
marked 'addressee has gone away'.
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It licensed, in early 2006, the dormant Acorn Computers
Acorn Computers
Acorn Computers Ltd. was a British computer company established in Cambridge, England, in 1978. The company produced a number of computers which were especially popular in the UK. These included the Acorn Electron, the BBC Micro, and the Acorn Archimedes...
trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
from French company Aristide & Co Antiquaire De Marques. This company sold IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
computers and had no connection to ARM
ARM Holdings
ARM Holdings plc is a British multinational semiconductor and software company headquartered in Cambridge. Its largest business is in processors, although it also designs, licenses and sells software development tools under the RealView and KEIL brands, systems and platforms, system-on-a-chip...
.
Launch
National Exhibition Centre
The National Exhibition Centre is an exhibition centre in Birmingham, England. It is near junction 6 of the M42 motorway, and is adjacent to Birmingham International Airport and Birmingham International railway station. It has 20 interconnected halls, set in grounds of 628 acres making it the...
near Birmingham, UK. At the show, the company distributed leaflets inviting people to "be part of one of the most exciting brand re-launches in UK history" by joining its reseller program.
Products
The company sold a range of laptop computers. The systems used Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
rather than the RISC OS
RISC OS
RISC OS is a computer operating system originally developed by Acorn Computers Ltd in Cambridge, England for their range of desktop computers, based on their own ARM architecture. First released in 1987, under the name Arthur, the subsequent iteration was renamed as in 1988...
operating system developed by the original Acorn Computers
Acorn Computers
Acorn Computers Ltd. was a British computer company established in Cambridge, England, in 1978. The company produced a number of computers which were especially popular in the UK. These included the Acorn Electron, the BBC Micro, and the Acorn Archimedes...
and this incarnation of Acorn did not support nor license any technologies or products of the original, apart from the name and Trademark.
The reuse of the Acorn Computers Ltd name caused an amount of confusion and controversy, particularly amongst the users of the original company's products.
acorncomputers.co.uk Domain dispute
On 24 July 2006, Nominet's Dispute Resolution Service (DRS) ruled that the domain name acorncomputers.co.uk should be transferred to the new Acorn from computer enthusiast Roy Johnson. The company made a complaint to DRS contending that the "use of [Acorn Computers'] company name is illegal and has caused much confusion and continues to do so which is detrimental to [Acorn] and extremely misleading". Despite the fact that Johnson appeared to have been operating the website since at least 2001, five years before the new Acorn was registered as a company. Nominet ruled in favour of Acorn, as Johnson had not maintained an accurate record of his postal address, and mail to Johnson's registered address was returned by Royal MailRoyal Mail
Royal Mail is the government-owned postal service in the United Kingdom. Royal Mail Holdings plc owns Royal Mail Group Limited, which in turn operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide...
marked 'addressee has gone away'.