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Google to be Sued Over Name?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the ludicrous-lawsuits-for-everyone dept.

WK writes "Now that Google's IPO is running, the company is on the verge of being sued by the family of Professor Edward Kasner who invented the word 'Googol' to describe a very big number. The great-niece of Kasner who was 4 years old at the time her uncle died says that although Google has brought attention to the name, it has not brought attention to Kasner's work. Google was not using the concepts, but just capitalizing on the name."

8 of 800 comments (clear)

  1. Dictionarying "Google": by Anonymous+Custard · · Score: 5, Informative
    Dictionarying "Google":

    The World-Wide Web search engine that indexes the greatest number of web pages - over two billion by December 2001 and provides a free service that searches this index in less than a second.

    The site's name is apparently derived from "googol", but note the difference in spelling.

    The "Google" spelling is also used in "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams, in which one of Deep Thought's designers asks, "And are you not," said Fook, leaning anxiously foward, "a greater analyst than the Googleplex Star Thinker in the Seventh Galaxy of Light and Ingenuity which can calculate the trajectory of every single dust particle throughout a five-week Dangrabad Beta sand blizzard?"
    --
    $8.95/mo web hosting
  2. Kleenex is the answer... by Jonny+Royale · · Score: 5, Informative
    First question: Is the word Googol trademarked?

    Second:
    Years ago, Coca-Cola lost the second half of its name to the public domain, when a judge ruled that "Cola" had become a generic term for referring to soft drinks. Similarly, "Aspirin" started as a brand name and wound up as the generic name for the drug. This is why the makers of "Kleenex" brand facial tissues bother with the "brand facial tissues" part, because there MUST be a viable generic term for a defendable brand name to exist.

    -Motley fool web site

    There's several rulings about names that ARE trademarked "falling" into public domain, and it's basically, you're a victim of your own success. Since the word Googol was used as a mathematical term, and has no doubt been used in numerous papers, discussions, etc., I have little belief that this suit would succeed, since the term has definitely been in the public domain for a long time.

    That being said, it would be nice if the Google folks maybe put up some of that IPO money to help kids learn math, or something....
  3. Prior Art: Barney Google by dexter+riley · · Score: 5, Informative

    From Toonopedia:

    The name "Barney Google" is familiar to anyone who ever watched a TV retrospective of comic strips -- he's the guy with the "goo-goo-googly eyes" in the 1923 Billy Rose song they always play in such retrospectives. Many newspapers use his name in the title of one of their comic strips. And in 1995, he was honored by the U.S. Postal Service in its "Comic Strip Classics" series of commemorative stamps.

    I think Billy DeBeck, creator of the strip, has a better claim to prior art than the nephew.

  4. Re:Baaahhh.... by liam193 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes, your numbers are correct. It is 500 shareholders or $10 million in assets. The SEC Website contains the corporate reporting guidelines set forth by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

  5. Re:Baaahhh.... by finkployd · · Score: 5, Informative

    Insightful? Huh? Can you provide me with a link that shows that Google derived its name from googol?

    Certainly

    Finkployd

  6. Re:Baaahhh.... by Mr.+Neutron · · Score: 5, Informative
    I agree completely. If google.com was a fly-by-night dot com, we would not even have known of this family's existence.

    Except in just about every 6th-grade-level math book, which tell the story of how Professor Kasner asked his 9-year-old nephew to come up with a word for a one followed by one hundred zeroes.

    Not saying this lawsuit has any grounds, but the origins of "googol" are well known.

    --
    dinner: it's what's for beer
  7. Re:Baaahhh.... by hoggoth · · Score: 5, Informative

    The word 'Yahoo' comes from 'Gulliver's Travels'.
    I think Swift's estate should be preparing a lawsuit just about now...

    --
    - For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)
  8. Re:Baaahhh.... by mcmonkey · · Score: 5, Informative
    No one is denying the source of the word.

    *raises hand* I am. And I'm not alone. Google predates googol, as was discussed in the May 9 Sunday Boston Globe, Feelin' Googly. Jan Freeman traces the life of google from 1380 to the present day. It seems more likely googol sprang from google, than other way round.

    The founders of Google admit they were inspired by googol, but as words of the english language, google predates, and most likely inspired, googol. Google should sue!