I have received a cease and desist letter from Google over the use of my company name Groggle Pty Ltd, our domain http://www.groggle.com.au and our registration of the trademark for the word 'Groggle' with IP Australia Just wondering of anyone else has received a letter like this from Google and, if so, how they went about contesting it? As a fledgling startup we hardly have the financial resources to fight Google on this and feel as though they are being a little hard given that the 'infringement' on their trademark is dubious at best. I cannot see that anyone would mistake our website for a Google product which is the point of their argument. Keen to hear everyone's thoughts. Cheers Cameron
Infringement does not need to be an exact spelling - there just needs to be a likelihood of confusion with the mark. Google is a famous coined mark and has much broader protection than an average mark. Assuming you are certain the letter is actually from Google (or their representative) then you should consult with an intellectual property rights attorney. It looks like your registration is very new, so their position could be that you came up with a very similar mark to ride their goodwill and/or that the mark is so similar, there is going to be confusion from just seeing the url. The real problem is that Google can afford to spend huge sums of money fighting you even if you had a good argument against confusion. I can tell you from personal experience that if you don't have a lot of money to fight it in court, you will lose if Google decides to pursue a case against you. These types of disputes can easily run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees - millions if it goes through appeals. I would personally be prepared to find another name, and would be surprised if you weren't warned about the possibility of your mark being contested if you performed a trademark search prior to filing. Get a legal opinion, but this is something that isn't going to be worth fighting imo. Google is also legally required to protect their mark from dilution and it's not that they are worried about your site, but rather protecting their mark from genericization. There is no low cost solution to a proper defense in these disputes.
Some suggestive reading: http://www.clickz.com/3306121 http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-tells-booble-to-cease-and-desist/222/ http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2004/01/29/booble-responds-to-google-read-letter Google dropped this one but your risk is real... best to find an attorney that love his "grog"... which can't be confused with large numbers since drunks can't even count to 10. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...illa:en-US:official&q=define:grog&btnG=Search I would also get your attorney to look into Google liquor policies... they have certain limitations with spirits... certainly if they cannot or won't offer that... they can't claim there is confusion in those areas.
how is this even closely related to google ?? there is even .co.uk of this ! are you sire that the letter is even from google ?