Google in the News Again

Recently, Google was involved in a trademark infringement suit with American Blind and Wallpaper Factory, as noted in this blog. Google is back in the news again, but this time involving their email system known as "Gmail." Since its inception in 2004, Gmail has been steadily gaining popularity over its other competitors within the United States, as well as countries around the world. Google is currently faced with trademark infringement actions for "Gmail" in Germany after already having tasted defeat in England and Switzerland.

In England, Google had to change its email service from "Gmail" to "Google Mail" after sparring with an English research firm called "Independent International Investment Research" who uses the name "G-mail" to refer to its financial analytics software. To avoid the potential of years of litigation, the search giant relinquished the trademark to the research firm. Therefore, all the new Google email clients in England received email addresses with the extension "@googlemail.com" instead of "@gmail.com."

In Switzerland, the search giant battled German venture capitalist Daniel Giersch. Giersch runs an electronic postal delivery business in Switzerland and Germany called "G-mail" which is short for "Giersch Mail." Interestingly, both Google and Giersch obtained registered trademarks to the name in 2005, but Giersch registered his mark a few months before Google. Swiss trademark officials do not check to see if a mark has been previously registered. They only determine if the name satisfies the threshold requirements of being a registered mark, and leave any challenges up to the relevant parties. Earlier this year, Google sought to gain sole control over the "Gmail" trademark, but the Swiss court dismissed Google’s argument that Giersch adopted the name in bad faith.

In Germany, Google is once again expected to lose to Giersch but a ruling is not anticipated until July 4, 2007. However, Google’s troubles in Europe may not yet be over as the trademark is being challenged in Poland by another party, and Giersch also owns the rights to the mark in Norway and Monaco.