cybershark has reported in our Back Page News that Google, after its Gmail debut, does not hold legal rights to the trademark, yet.
Normally, the registrations for trademarks are handled in a "first come, first served" basis and in this case, Google is in fact, the fourth in line. Who gets it first? Cencourse, a Miami company that provides multimedia services has filed the application on the same day that Google spilled the beans on Gmail.
The first applicant, Cencourse, filed the application on March 31st. Precision Research jumped in on April the 2nd, following by the British market research firm, Independent International Investment Research (IIIR) who filed the application on the next day. Google didn't make a move until April 7th.
IIIR is the only company out of the three that contacted Google about the dispute. The company's CEO admitted to operating a service with similar name since 2002 and filed the application after hearing about Google's service.
"Having invested in making our target market aware of our service, we wish to avoid the confusion that would inevitably arise if a much, much larger firm were to brand its service indistinguishably from our own," he said.
It is likely that the dispute will be heading to court where Google's attorney holds confidence in victory. One could only imagine why the trademark ownership hasn't been taken cared off before the service gets announced.
View: Visit Internet News for more details
Normally, the registrations for trademarks are handled in a "first come, first served" basis and in this case, Google is in fact, the fourth in line. Who gets it first? Cencourse, a Miami company that provides multimedia services has filed the application on the same day that Google spilled the beans on Gmail.
The first applicant, Cencourse, filed the application on March 31st. Precision Research jumped in on April the 2nd, following by the British market research firm, Independent International Investment Research (IIIR) who filed the application on the next day. Google didn't make a move until April 7th.
IIIR is the only company out of the three that contacted Google about the dispute. The company's CEO admitted to operating a service with similar name since 2002 and filed the application after hearing about Google's service.
"Having invested in making our target market aware of our service, we wish to avoid the confusion that would inevitably arise if a much, much larger firm were to brand its service indistinguishably from our own," he said.
It is likely that the dispute will be heading to court where Google's attorney holds confidence in victory. One could only imagine why the trademark ownership hasn't been taken cared off before the service gets announced.
View: Visit Internet News for more details
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Last edited by 33280 on 13 Aug 2004 - 06:41
Last edited by 52 on 13 Aug 2004 - 06:02
The IIIR company is the only one that operated anything (according to articles) remotely named gmail, so they will have the best case. However, google's defense to that is "why didn't you file 2 years ago if it was important"
Or google can go the Microsoft route and just throw money at whatever company gets it (in the event they dont) and get it that way.
So what? Why didn't Google file before they announced if it was important?
Trademarks are fist come first serve but there are exceptions. If you can prove the brand is yours and that the person filling the trademark only did so to blackmail/sabotage your company, then you can get the trademark taken and given to you. (i.e. look at the linux trademark fiasco back in the day).
Patents on the other hand are not first come first served. Its first invented first served and there are time restrictions where if you pass a certain time and don't file, you give up all rights.
As for why google didn't file for it ahead of time: they didn't want the cat out of the bag. Whenever a company goes for a patent, the rumor mill starts. Just check out the "Dawn of Souls" or whatever the crap SquareEnix wants to put out now that was in the news like 2 days ago.
Better to do it this way, since they will get it without a problem.
IIIR has a reason.
And why didn't they just file the trademark on the same day that Google spilled the beans on Gmail?
But I suspect that the trademark holder will just be an ass and walk away with the trademark title.
Last edited by 14932 on 13 Aug 2004 - 06:19
Last edited by 66688 on 13 Aug 2004 - 05:42
Hmm, "ripple effect." I watch too much 4400.
wonder what it will be called if they can't use Gmail? GoogleMail? GoogleBox? G-Email?? i like!
unoriginal, which isnt like google
doesnt associate with email
that one is just stupid.
we shall see...
Hi to everybody:
This my latest email using this account, please forward me to my old xxxx@hotmail.com...
dL
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