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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."

4 of 800 comments (clear)

  1. Welll... by OrthodonticJake · · Score: 0, Redundant

    ...since it's not spelled the same, I guess I don't really see his case.

    --
    I regularly report MSN spam to the Hotmail admins.
  2. Re:Are you serious? by Propagandhi · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Score 3, Insightful for pointing out that "googol" and "google" aren't spelled the same?

    Bravo :)

  3. Re:Baaahhh.... by next1 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    that's right - there's no way i'd use it if it wasn't called google. their success is clearly nothing to do with their revolutionary search methodology and everything to do with them deriving their name from another word.

    uh-huh.

  4. wowzers by fresh27 · · Score: 1, Redundant
    argh. this is a number now. if you're going to invent a word for a number, that's the word now, and you can't take credit every time somebody uses it.

    next week: family sues pier one

    --
    http://ipod.fresh27.net/