Google loses Gmail name game
p2pnet news | product news:- Google has lost its battle in a name claim.
Germany’s Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market had already ruled Daniel Giersch, who calls Google Googliath, had the rights to G-mail which contended The Big One, was close, too close, to its Gmail.
Giersch says he’d been using G-Mail since 2000, four years before Gmail arrived on the scene.
Today, Google’s efforts to overwhelm the G-Mail owner reached their final conclusion, says Agency France-Presse.
“The regional court in the northern city of Hamburg ruled that Google may not use the name in Germany,” says the story, adding:
“Giersch denied speculation he was trying to extort a princely sum from the company for the brand name. ‘Neither G-Mail nor I can be bought,’ Giersch said in a statement.”
Last year, his company introduced G-mail to the German public, “in a test environment” and launched the first G-mail Ranger Group to personally sign up users, says Giersch.
Also See:
already ruled – ‘GMail’ nixed in Europe, February 1, 2007
Agency France-Presse – Google loses court battle to German upstart, July 6, 2007
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
July 6th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Am I the only one who feels a little bit sorry for Google here? I mean, they took over the world, not him; and it makes sense for a world service to have the same name the world over. His interest appears to be completely commercial, and so it can be entirely compensated for with money. It’s not like he can’t re-launch with a different name. Why would he want a product that sounds like Google’s gmail, anyway???
P.S. Have you ever tried to come up with a name that no one has used in the entire world, and that doesn’t translate into a swear word in an obscure language somewhere???
July 7th, 2007 at 7:33 am
“Giersch says he’d been using G-Mail since 2000, four years before Gmail arrived on the scene.”
If he can prove he had ownership of it first it should be his name to use.
July 7th, 2007 at 8:56 am
no its just another case of the utter absurdity of modern day capitalism. Who would vote for a capitalist political party? Morons the world over do and it really gives me the shits!
July 7th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
(david) That’s what gives Giersch the right to adequate – yes, even “generous” – compensation. I’m thinking of it rather like a compulsory purchase of land to put down a road. As long as he’s demonstrably better off than he ever would have been building his own business, I’m okay with it.
July 9th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
The ONLY reason his G-Mail would be popular or even used by people in Germany is due to the advertising and marketing efforts of the *real* GMail (Google)–he is a little nothing nobody who got sympathy from the German courts who are obviously aghast that an American company is so powerful and wants to make things easier for people around the world to do email. I think Google should simply block every German IP address from accessing their GMail servers. Would serve ‘em right!