Google Inc. has replaced its "Gmail" with "googlemail" in Britain on Wednesday. It had to accede to the demands of a British company which said that the U.S. giant has infringed its trademark. This followed negotiations by Google with London-based Independent International Investment Research (IIIR) when its rights to retain the name failed.
The dispute began 18 months ago when IIIR, which owns an e-mail service, called G-mail valued at £25 million, asked Google to drop its “Gmail” name. IIIR's chief executive, Shane Smith, said that his company would be after Google till it drops the Gmail name worldwide. It is also expected to sue Google for damages. Mr Smith defending his strategy said: “We are a gnat biting the ankle of a giant but that shouldn't stop us defending the intellectual property rights of our shareholders."
Google, on the other hand, accused IIIR of blackmailing it in a bid to bag "exorbitant" sums of money to settle the issue. Statement issued by Google said: "In spite of the tenuous nature of their [IIIR's] claims, we still tried to resolve this matter through negotiations. …but the sums of money this company is demanding are exorbitant."
This is the second instance where Google has dropped the "Gmail" name in a European country. It had been earlier forced to drop the trademark in Germany in June after a similar dispute ensued there. The case is still pending in the German courts.
However, Mike Lynd, of Marks & Clerk, the patent and trademark lawyer, said: "Although IIIR, Google and a few hopeful opportunists have rushed to file a Community Trademark for the Gmail mark, Mr Giersch's existing German registration will undermine all of these applications.” But, he quickly added: "However, IIIR - because of rights acquired as a result simply of its use of the Gmail mark in the UK since May 2002 - seems likely to end up with the ability to prevent Google from using Gmail in every EU country other than Germany."
Henceforth, users will have to use @googlemail.com suffix instead of @gmail.com.
Posted
on : Thu, 20 Oct 2005 12:10 GMT | General News
By : Anne Philips
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