The Google Trademark Enforcement Team

I have had a domain name for nearly a year and today I got this email. Should I take this sirously and should I charge administration costs for this domain?

I am a non-us residant.

 

Well it is a .NL domain name.

The name does contain "google", but the fullname is not trademarkt by google.

 

They have more money and more lawyers than you, I am guessing.

The somewhat idiotic courts have been ruling against people in your situation.

You are not going to win.

On the other hand, if you have very little to lose, you can make yourself as much of a pain in the butt to these idiots as possible.

I lived in the Netherlands for awhile, in Eindhoven and in Helmond. Dutch people seem to have an enormous social resevoir of common sense and an almost matching sense of tenacity.

The courts are, IMHO, working against common sense in these rulings. MikeRoweSoft is not Microsoft. PRGoogle is not Google.

On the other hand, when eBay threatened to sue me, I folded immediately.

It all depends on what you have to lose and how willing you are to fight the good fight.

OK, some anonymous weenie didn't understand my post.

Here's their anonymous comment:

The point is that MikeRoweSoft is not Microsoft and PRGoogle is not Google. There is no infringement occurring.

Those major companies are claiming rights which they do not have, and the courts are allowing it because the big companies can afford to pay the lawyers to make their bullshit seem reasonable.

 

Yes. I understand.

My argument is that "PRGoogle" is not "confusingly similar" to "Google" and that the big companies are only able to claim that it is because they have more lawyers and money.

We are not in disagreement.

 

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

I lookedit up on the internet and found that Google lost a belgium lawsuit for the domain name Googel.be (belgium)

What is intressting in this is that the domain name I registers (months ago) has not other extention owned by Google. Not .com .be .de or any other I can see.

 

I'm not aware of the US law on this, but in the UK it would have to be proven that you were 'passing off' to constitute a trademark infringement.

If you include a clear statement on your website saying that you are not associated with Google, I can't see how any lawyer could successfully argue that you were attempting to pass off.. but then as Will says they can probably afford quite good lawyers

 

perhaps you should try contact Google and see if the email is genuine?

 

They lost the rights in the UK to 'Gmail' so depending on the situation (I agree it being unlikely) you might win...

 

Google has a trademark on the name "Google". It doesn't matter if you add words to the name, they own "google" in various classifications and you can't incorporate the word into a domain name. Even mispellings that sound the same can be infringement "MikeRowe" and even foreign spellings i.e. "Water World" vs. "Agua World." The exception would be if you were using the name BEFORE they started using it. It doesn't matter if you post a disclaimer saying you are not associated with "google." Before you use a name, you are responsible for checking to see if there is any prior usage. "Google" is such a unique name that it is going to look like you registered the domain to ride the goodwill of their name. Since they have a Federally Registered trademark, they can seek treble damages (legal fees) if they want.

At least in the US, if you fight the case, you cannot generally recover legal fees even if you win. A case like this could easily run hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend. I fought a major luxury retailer years ago and we settled before it went to court, but my legal fees exceed $30,000. Unless you are making a lot of money with this domain, I would give up the domain as they are likely to have a solid case (as the "google" spelling part is exact)- but more importantly, (assuming the letter is real) they will proceed with a case against you. It doesn't matter if they haven't registered other extensions of the domain - they have rights to the word "google". When you own a trademark, you have a legal obligation to take action against people who are infringing upon your name (no matter how small they are) to keep from losing your rights to the trademark/service mark. They are under no obligation to pay you anything, but you can always ask.

The difference in the UK "Gmail" case was that the UK firm started using the "Gmail" name two years BEFORE google launched their service. In this case, he registered the domain years AFTER google had been using it.

 

Actually I registerd it before google was using it. There is no trademark of the domain itself.

 

Your post said:

"I have had a domain name for nearly a year and today I got this email."

It doesn't matter if the domain name isn't an exact match - there are millions of possible variations of domains that could contain "google". Incorporating the name "google" in any domain name is what is going to be seen as infringement.

Google's trademark filing dates back to 1998. If you are saying you were using the name prior to 1998, then you should seek legal advice.

 

@mjewel,

Thank you for clearing it for me

The emails was not from Google.

 

hey! That's good news! You can relax now

 

No, this means that Google is a big company and that they are
not good at talking to each other. If you read the original
e-mail, there is no solicitation, no indication at all that there
is a scam or spam going on.

This does give you at tiny bit of clout if they contact you again,
to say that Google denied that it came from them, but I expect
that you will soon get a letter in the mail.

Big companies have many tools to enforce their trademarks,
one of which is to sue you in multiple venues until they just
wear you down.

They have a market capitalization of 100 billion dollars,
you don't.


Best regards
wiz

 

I looked at the header and the email was not send by google. I tracked the IP of the email and it was not from a Google server. It is from alldomains.com

 

Can you think of any reason that a spammer would take the
time to send this e-mail to you?