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Google Abandons the Gmail Name In Germany

Posted by kdawson on from the but-not-the-service dept.

praps writes "A three-year trademark conflict has ended with Google withdrawing its use of the Gmail brand in Germany. On Friday, a plain-text message appeared, beginning 'We can't provide service under the Gmail name in Germany ... Bummer.' Despite the climbdown, Google Germany's spokesman said on Monday that the action was being taken 'even though we believe we're not legally obliged to do so.'" We discussed the tussle in Germany when Google first lost in court a year ago.

6 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Surprising? by MisterBlueSky · · Score: 5, Informative

    yet some Germans have a problem with one of its most popular names and when do they sue? When the name is already known worldwide!
    They sued in 2005. GMail was launched in 2004. When should they have sued? In 1999?
  2. Re:'Gmail' brand sucks everywhere guys by W00dyW00d · · Score: 4, Informative

    You can give people that email too. So if you have Slashdot@gmail.com then Slashdot@googlemail.com works too.

  3. Re:Surprising? by photomonkey · · Score: 5, Informative

    Moderation. As in, 'In moderation.'

    In moderation, most things are good. If I make a really good car, and I call it a Sephir, I don't want another company to be able to call their car (or car-related service) a Sephir.

    However, do I care if there's a Sephir cola? Probably not.

    Do I care if someone makes an email service @sephir.com? Probably not.

    Frankly, I probably wouldn't care if 'Sephir' became synonymic with 'car.'

    But the problem, at least in the US, is that firstly, to hold a trademark, I must actively defend it. Meaning that to demonstrate that defense, I have to C&D or sue every ISP and cola manufacturer that uses it, so that when some slimy car company opens up and tries to usurp it from me, I have a legal leg to stand on.

    The other problem is a sense of entitlement. Two search engines called Google? Award it to the original Google. A non-information technology product called Google using dissimilar trade dress (meaning the word, but not the logo as it sits today)? Let them run with it. It shouldn't hurt anything.

    It's not IP that hurts progress. It is the overreaching of IP theories and laws that hurt progress. If a person invents or makes something really good, why not allow him/her to enjoy some real 'bonuses' for having done so?

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    Message contains 1 attachment: spam.gif
  4. Re:Buy the company takeover the trademark by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    They tried and Daniel Giersch denied them.

    Guess what, if they offer you a ton of money for something, you DON'T have to take it!

  5. Google is Gigantic by MushMouth · · Score: 4, Informative

    first of all it is 20K not 5K,
    secondly their market cap at $171B is one of the largest in the world,
    so yes they are Gigantic!

  6. Re:Gmail can be confusing in German... by aCC · · Score: 4, Informative

    G pronounced in German sounds like "gay". A few years ago when I told friends that I got a G-Mail beta account, they made fun of me and asked what my girlfriends thinks about that...

    What? That must have been a situation of an English speaker pronouncing the letter wrongly; probably just having read somewhere that it's close to the pronunciation of "gay". If you hear a German pronounce the letter, you will hear that it's nowhere near "gay".

    You can compare this to people saying that the English "th" sounds like "s".