p2pnet.net News:- Google used to be a fun company run by fun people with good Net manners, and good intentions.

With Do No Evil as its motto, it quickly attracted a huge following of devoted admirer/users and Google the name became google the verb – to google, meaning to search for something online.

Good for Google? Apparently not. It’s, “fired off a series of legal letters to media organisations, warning them against using its name as a verb,” says The Independent, going on to quote a spokesman as stating, “‘We think it’s important to make the distinction between using the word Google to describe using Google to search the internet, and using the word Google to describe searching the internet. It has some serious trademark issues.”

And it may be right, say reports.

“Google spells out its verb case scenario,” says Silicon.com, quoting linguistics expert Dr Julie Coleman as saying, “The prestige associated with a trademark is lost if people use it generically, so I do see Google’s point. They also do lots more than just search, so maybe they’re reluctant for their brand name to be restricted in this way.”

And, “The risk for Google is that it ceases to become a brand altogether,” says Out-Law.com. “If it becomes generic, the brand can be struck from the register of trade marks, leaving the owner without rights. This has happened before: escalator, aspirin, pogo, gramophone and linoleum were once registered trade marks that became victims of genericide.”

Meanwhile, to google is also coming to mean something else: to ‘censor’.

Also See:
The Independent – To google or not to google? It’s a legal question, August 14, 2006
Silicon.com – Wants everybody to stop ‘googling’…, August 14, 2006
Out-Law.com – Why Google is right to rebuke brand abuse, August 14, 2006
to ‘censor’ – China Net censors named, August 14, 2006

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