Good news! You probably don’t need to worry about Google pulling Gmail out of Germany due to impending privacy laws.
Bad news! Instead, it looks like Google might yank the service anyway, after losing a trademark battle over the use of the name in Germany.
The regional court in the northern city of Hamburg ruled that Google may not use the name in Germany, upholding 33-year-old businessman Daniel Giersch’s claim to have a copyright on the name for an email service he has been developing for seven years.
Mr Giersch says he has used the name “G-Mail” since 2000, four years before the US giant launched its “Gmail” product
Who’s side are you on? The small guy that’s held the name longer than Google, but not actually done much with it, or the bullying search engine that thinks it has the right to use the name?
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4 comments on “Google’s Gmail Faces Another Legal Blow in Germany”
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Webmaster Money Says:
July 7th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Daniel Giersch’s is right… He will be rich man now.
horisly Says:
July 7th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
it is a pity to hear that.
google is not good at publitical, the same in china.
Owen Says:
July 10th, 2007 at 2:40 am
I’m with Google on this one. With a global brand there’s always a chance of coming across someone who may have used it in a particular country before them. I’ll leave it to their lawyers to sort out.
Google pierde la marca Gmail en Alemania Says:
August 23rd, 2007 at 7:16 am
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