Google Could Face Lawsuit Over Use of Gmail Name

[mandy]

A UK company is considering filing a lawsuit against Google over its use of the Gmail name.

http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,3...262,00.htm

It would be a pity if google was sued and lost the use of the name.  :twistedevil:

[mandy]

What a pity they DID lose the use of the name!  :twistedevil:

Gmail, the free e-mail service run by internet search giant Google, will change its name for new UK users.

Following a trademark dispute the mail account will be renamed Googlemail.

Current UK users of Google's service will be unaffected, but a separate trademark dispute forced Google to drop the Gmail name in Germany in May.

full article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4354954.stm

[mandy]

Update:

Google's Gmail trademark just suffered a severe blow in Europe as the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market has ruled against the search giant's use of the Gmail name there, according to the man who opposed the mark.

Daniel Giersch, a German-born 32-year old entrepreneur, has just announced that his company received a positive ruling last week from the Harmonization Office supporting his claim that "Gmail" and his own "G-mail" are confusingly similar. G-mail is a German service that provides a "gmail.de" email address, but also allows for a sort of "hybrid mail" system in which documents can be sent electronically, printed out by the company, and delivered in paper format to local addresses...

full article: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070131-8741.html

GMail will be renamed Google Mail in Europe.

[mandy]

More Gmail name woes for Google - this time in China:

Google Inc, fighting to consolidate its trademark globally, faces an obstacle in the world's second largest Web market -- China's www.Gmail.cn, which is refusing to sell its Internet address to the US giant.

A legal source said on Monday that Google was trying to buy the Internet domain name www.gmail.cn, which is run by Beijing-based ISM Technologies.

The name closely resembles Google's internationally known email service, www.gmail.com, and the colours in which the two logos are written are similar. The ".cn" suffix is commonly used for Chinese domain names...

full article: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Gmai...691405.cms

[mandy]

Update on Gmail Germany:

A court in Germany today banned Google from using the name "Gmail" for its popular webmail service following a trademark suit filed by the founder of G-Mail.

Daniel Giersch (33), started using the name G-Mail in 2000, four years before Google released "Gmail".

"Google infringed the young businessman's trademark that had been previously been registered," said the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in its judgement...

full article: http://pressesc.com/01183582507_gmail