Interesting news for Domain players: Google might lose trademark protection
 

Google name might lose trademark protection due to it's trademark becoming common public parlance.

Practical implication for webmasters/domain players: Current federal law protects against retaining domains that have trademarked elements. IF the trademark protection disappears due to the mark entering the common common vocabulary, the legal protection against such domain registrations disappears. This might have already happened since the term "google" is now a verb per the 11th edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary

"Google risks losing the value of its corporate trademark, he pointed out, if it becomes part of everyday speech.

Google appreciates the problem. In its 2005 annual report to investors, the Mountain View, Calif., company noted that "there is a risk that the word 'Google' could become so commonly used that it becomes synonymous with the word 'search.' If this happens, we could lose protection for our trademark, which could result in other people using the word 'Google' to refer to their own products."

Full story here: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...home-headlines

Time to fire up snapnames ... *burp*

Not a chance. Their name is one of their biggest assets. Their lawyers will fight like hell over this.

The odds are 100 to 1 that they keep their mark.

Annual reports have to disclose such possibilities, it doesn't mean they are likely.

:2 cents:

wow that would be some shit....

Is that good or bad? :P

lol, considering I have like 4-5 google domains, that would be awesome

yeh not a chance, google will fight like fuck

they lost gmail as well in some countries, because they didn't really pay attention to how trademark protection works

I believe the chance of google losing their trademark is probably 1 in a googol.

kleenex
xerox
.....

Google is above the law.

No way its ever going to happen

yep, they already own 3/4 of congress.

google was added into the merriam webster dictionary as a verb meaning "search for something using the google search engine"

"Google" the trademark is a proper noun - the name of the company

however, wasnt google already a regular noun - meaning a number with 1,000 digits?

I dont think it will make any difference... the trademark office will rule in favor of them

Your thinking of googol which is "The number 10 raised to the power 100 (10[sup]100[/sup]), written out as the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros."

What about booble.com

Isnt Playboy in everyday vocabulary now?

If you go to wank off to a naked chick do you say.. "Hey, I'm gonna go playboy!"? lol.. but if you search for something you say "Go google it" even if your not referering to google directly.

no way!.. i thought it was just a slang... i find it amazing to create something that actually becomes a part of the language

yeah they will sue the fuck out of anyone still

That's the key right there. They won't lose their trademark because even though the word is used in common language, its meaning refers to using the google search engine, and not merely a search. So the word is inextricably tied into the google search engine specifically and is distinct from doing a search in any other serach engine or medium.

And no, google was not a word prior to the search engine. I heard on the radio that they actually intended it to be goggle but by mistake they wound up with google and it stuck.

..both famous trademarks which are still in full force and effect, despite their common use in the vernacular.

:upsidedow

So does this mean that Coke could loose thier trademark as well. Most ppl regardless of what brand of Cola the place is selling order a "coke" not a cola.

Parody is protected speech.

But, Booble wasn't without a fight.

Write those checks to your lawyers $$$$$$$

Absolutely agree man!

Seriously, that'd be like saying "Well Coke has become a commonly used term for anything 'pop' or 'soda' related so screw that TM" or for that matter ANY product or service that becomes a household name now or in the future would fall into the same predicament.

I'm pretty certain google's legal team will 'aggressively protect' that mark and get the outcome they want.



EDIT: Dammit Brock ya beat me to the Coke example! :)

fuck that google rules all...

yep. Loooong list of trademarks lost due to common usage.