Google sues Polish poets over Gmail domain

[Crusader]

Google has launched legal action against a group of Polish poets, demanding that they give up their Internet domain name gmail.pl, a member of the cultural collective said.

Izabela Krawczyk of GMAiL -- the "Grupa Mlodych Artystow i Literatow," or Group of Young Artists and Writers -- told AFP that Google had turned to the country's IT and telecommunications tribunal to try to stop them using the Web site address www.gmail.pl.

"We didn't buy this name just to sell it to Google. As a matter of pride, we're refusing to give it up," she said.

"We bought the name legally, with our own money. Nobody gave it to us for free. We refuse to be deprived of what we consider is our property."

Krawczyk said that Google had not proposed a financial settlement.

"Their lawyer told me that his client had no intention of paying for something which belonged to him," she claimed.

It was not immediately possible to contact Google's Polish lawyers on Friday.

Krawczyk, a poet and IT fan based in the central Polish city of Lodz, said that at the end of last year her group was surprised to discover that www.gmail.pl was available. They decided to buy the rights to the domain name in order to raise the profile of GMAiL, which publicises the works of young unknowns who have not yet found a conventional editor.

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It will be interesting to see if Google wins this one since the site doesn't have anything to do with online e-mail.

[GADOOD]

Another public relations disaster for Google.

The cracks appear to be widening.

Pete

[login]

Its really crazy how big companies can burst in and claim this and that.

[MikeBarnett]

Ha, google and law suites seem to go hand in hand

[James12513]

Google have so much money, why not just pay the person $100,000 lol
It's nothing to Google

[GADOOD]

I think offering money would weaken their case (and future ones) that claims the domain is rightfully theres.

Pete

[axemedia]

Interesting case.

Their site title is Grupa Mtodych Artystow i Literatow, or GMAIL for short.

My polish is non-existent but it looks to me to be something like Group of Literary Artists. Not sure what the Mtodych word means.

The acronym fits perfectly with who they are and nothing about the site and its content is in any way related to e-mail and Google.

I think they might have a good case for keeping it. Will be interesting to see what the Polish courts say.

[lipskin]

If Google keeps this up they'll be as popular as the RIAA!

[technolarity]

People Sue Google and Google Sues them Back .

[mickn]

axemedia it's not "Mtodych" but "Młodych" and it means: young. "Group of Young Artists and Writers". By the way they've tried to sell the domain on an polish auction site (very similiar to Ebay). They got offers in hunderds of dollars and changed their mind. I bet Google is going to use this as a proof their idea was only to get money.

[The Stealthy One]

What bothers me is that Google is acting like this a lot lately. Whatever happened to, "Do no evil?"

[axemedia]

Originally Posted by mickn

axemedia it's not "Mtodych" but "Młodych"

I know that. A "t" is the closest thing I got on my keyboard. Call it Polish leet speak.

Originally Posted by The Stealthy One

What bothers me is that Google is acting like this a lot lately. Whatever happened to, "Do no evil?"

That went the way of the Dodo at about the time Google shares went above $300

[bochgoch]

Originally Posted by axemedia

That went the way of the Dodo at about the time Google shares went above $300

...hehehe...I guess we all have our price....?

[djixas]

Go Grupa Młodych Artystów i Literatów!

I wonder how hard gmail.pl site traffic increased...

[Hopper]

Seems that they are not having it all their own way at the moment

GMail

[djixas]

It was almoust 3 weeks ago...

[devin]

Originally Posted by GADOOD

I think offering money would weaken their case (and future ones) that claims the domain is rightfully theres.

Pete

exactly. i know because my dad is in a similar story (well offline not online). he was dismissed unfairly by a conglomerate, and he filed a suit against them. they spent TEN YEARS (and god knows how much money) preventing the case from being heard (bribing judges, paying someone to destroy the evidence files, etc).

they could've just paid my dad the $1m he is asking for compensation, but they didn't want to, because doing that is bad for their PR. It shows the public (and its international clients) that it had unfairly dismissed a former employee.

[Ganceann]

After the ruling, Giersch also announced lawsuits to defend more recent registrations of the trademark in Switzerland, Norway and Monaco.

Google has always argued the two names are not confusingly similar. The company even offered to buy the trademark rights from Giersch for $250,000, but the German entrepreneur declined. He called Google's behaviour "very threatening, very aggressive and very unfaithful".

In 2005, Google also had to rename its Google Mail service in the UK where research firm IIIR claimed "Gmail" for its financial analytics software in an out of court settlement with the search giant.

Gmail is not trademarked in Europe to Google, but rather to the gmail.de owner Giersh. If anything, it appears google are trying to bully small time webmasters into handing over domain names that Google are not legally entitled to own as they do not have the European Trademark.

Perhaps Daniel Giersch would win a case if he had a european wide trademark, but his may have only been in Germany. The polish site was not intending to profit by selling back to google nor are they in a competing environment. It would throw the previous rulings into doubt if google were to win this - unless they could prove that the polish site was 'cybersquatting' then that is a different story.

[mickn]

They intended to sell it right after they bought it. They put on an auction through allegro.pl (an Ebay kind of site) but didn't get money they hoped for. It's all a trick (a good one )

Originally Posted by Ganceann

The polish site was not intending to profit by selling back to google nor are they in a competing environment.