Google loses Gmail Trademark suit in Europe

Google was banned from using the name "Gmail" for its popular webmail service by German court, following a trademark suit filed by the founder of G-Mail, German mail system.

Daniel Giersch, 33, started using the name G-Mail in 2000, four years before Google released "Gmail". The battle for the trademark has dragged on for three years and has been fought in a number of jurisdictions. Google has filed lawsuits against Giersch in Spain, Portugal and Switzerland.

"Google infringed the young businessman's trademark that had been previously been registered," said the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in its judgement.

 

Looks like google is having problems lol

 

That's some great news
Congrats to the "young businessman" he is now rich.

 

Good for them they need to be nicer to people anyway maybe they will learn.

 

I'm pretty sure this is olddd news?

That's why gmail switched to googlemail a while back.

 

Is that just in Germany that they can't use the name or internationally? gmail.com still points to Google Mail.

 

Only in Germany....

 

If I well remember it was a similar issue with Adsense, no? Somebody had a company called Adsense long before Google launched the service and then they lost to Google i think.

 

The guy will eventually sell it.. just waiting for the right offer.

 

That German will become a millionaire now for sure

 

Is it true?
Then Google will have to pay a lot to him to buy the trade mark from him.

 

Adsense.com owner didnt loose the domain to the google. there wasnt any law suite. The owner sold the domain to google for an undisclosed amount.

 

Damn google, who are they to claim that name when the guy had it from 2000???

 

ya red it in newspaper, some german guy regged g-mail, he said it was before the gmail was born, but google has filed a lawsuit at many places

 

i have laugh that google losted battle
well the business man will become richer if he sell the domain to google

 

Google had filed the lawsuit and they had lost it around end of the last year or beginning of this year. This an old news now..

 

donno but i red this in yesterdays newspaper

 

Hmm... I guess it is real old news. Or your newspaper is getting to you late. Especially since the news prior to February 2007 and I posted about it back in February as well.

Edit: Ok I guess I could see why you thought it just broke as a newstory. I just read my email from Site pro News. The link in that email was to Seroundtable. At the bottom of the article it has a reference link to this exact thread at DP. And how many people thought in this thread that the $250k was not worth it for the German Gmail domain owner.

So I guess the lawsuit was filed in February and the decision was just made in favor of the German domain owner this month.