For a while now, Adsense.com was the home of a company called Adsense Consulting. After Google came out with Adsense, they dedicated the Adsense.com webpage to telling people about how Google stole their name. Now, Google manage to acquire the adsense.com domain and redirect it to themselves. Do not know where to stand on this one. On one side is a small business on the other is our lovely Google.
I am sure google paid good money to acquire it off adsense consulting. If they purchased the domain without any knowledge of the adnse program, then they had every right to that domain without infringing any trademark issues.
I'm sure they paid for it. Google has too much money to risk getting the kind of bad publicity they would get if they went "after" the domain holders, especially since the domain was established YEARS before Adsense was even born. All the law is on the original owner's side. And the fact that you don't hear a peep from anyone about this? And that the transfer went over smoothly and quietly and in the middle of the night? Yup, sounds like a direct buy to me. For LOTS of money. Edited: Apparently the owners sold the domain to a third party, who then sold it to Google. No terms were disclosed. Read about it here.
Adsense, whenever someone use this word it remind you only about google except anything so its good that they acquired that domain and they should be as they are big name in internet industry and even small negative publicity they dont want. Surely they acquired the adsense.com by paying good amount to them as if they had did that forcefully till now the owner of domain might had filed the case against them.
Adsense Consulting is on the domain http://www.adsense2.com and still have the message telling people about how Google stole their name.
I guess that is why the experts always advise you to trademark or copywrite or patent all your intellectual property, even thought it is a hassle to do so. There is always a bigger fish waiting to devour it.....
Prime is right, we people dont copyright our name or business and then when big tycoon overtake us we reach like what adsense consulting people are doing, its better to take precautions rather then feeling sorry for yourself later.
Too right! If I were Google, I would have bought up the domain long before launching the Adsense program. It's such bad business not to. Imagine how much more they would have had to pay for the domain now.. 100x? 1000x?
So if they used the AdSense term even before google started using it they don't have any rights on it if they don't register a TM... too sad for them at least I hope they got good money for the domain