AT&T Tech Support 360Google loses Gmail trademark case in Germany
Looks like Google will finally have to stop using the Gmail trademark in Germany. A German appellate court ruled against the company, says German venture capitalist Daniel Giersch, who brought the case against Google. The court is expected to provide a written ruling on July 4, according to Google and Giersch.
Giersch runs an electronic postal delivery business that goes by the name G-mail, which is short for "Giersch mail." Giersch says he only wants to use the trademark in Germany, Switzerland, Norway and Monaco.
A Swiss court also has ruled against Google.
Separately, Google had to rename its e-mail service Google Mail in the United Kingdom in 2005 after losing a trademark case there. Google's use of the trademark also is being challenged in Poland.
language, money, must the German courts insist on creating even
more barriers to trade and industry? Google may not have been
the very first with Gmail as moniker, but surely causing grief to the
the billions of people sure to be using Google's Gmail worldwide far
outweighs the local German cabal? Such disputes should be
settled, and settled quickly, by international trading organizations,
not by local yokel kangaroo courts in uber Gintesberg.
established trademark and brand. That's a pretty hard thing to do
and would pretty much make trademark law meaningless.
Google has been overly aggressive. Whatever happened with their
suit against Googles.com, the toddler supply site that predated
Google and had a trademark on Googles?