Tachibana General Laboratories

Tachibana Labs, or Tachibana Laboratories, is a fictional company within Serial Experiments Lain. They are mostly known for being the company that employed Masami Eiri as Project Director of Protocol Seven up until his death. They are the company responsible for the creation of Copland OS, by far the most popular OS for NAVIs, and also manufacture hardware.

Speculation on the name

Tachibana is the name of a citrus fruit. Lawrence Eng presents the possibility that the creators of Lain chose this name in order to emulate Apple. [1]

Another reason this name might have been chosen is that the tachibana tree was traditionally associated with memories. From Keene's translation of Essays in Idleness:

Orange blossoms are famous for evoking memories, but the fragrance of plum blossoms above all makes us return to the past and remember nostalgically long-ago events. Nor can we overlook the clean loveliness of the yamabuki or the uncertain beauty of wisteria, and so many other compelling sights.

A footnote to this passage by the translator states, "The scent of orange (tachibana) blossoms was believed to bring back old memories."