Google Abandons the Gmail Name In Germany 187
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.
Re:Surprising? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:'Gmail' brand sucks everywhere guys (Score:4, Informative)
Hardly the end of the world (Score:3, Informative)
FTFA, this is the message GMail/Google Mail users are now getting in Germany:
"We can't provide service under the Gmail name in Germany; we're called Google Mail here instead. If you're traveling in Germany, you can access your mail at http://mail.google.com./ [mail.google.com] Oh, and we'd like to link the URL above, but we're not allowed to do that either. Bummer."
Users are then forced to copy and paste the URL into their browsers to access their Gmail account.
People will have to copy and paste... Oh no, those poor users!
Re:Surprising? (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?
Re:Buy the company takeover the trademark (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!
Google is Gigantic (Score:5, 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!
Re:Surprising? (Score:1, Informative)
Wrong. You must actively defend it within the domain you hold it in. Not only do you not need to defend it in an unrelated domain like cola or ISPs, but it's entirely possible someone else can hold a valid trademark on the same term in that domain. This is what happened with Apple Computer and Apple Corps Records. Apple Computer started getting into music and Apple Corps sued them.
Re:Surprising? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Gmail can be confusing in German... (Score:5, 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".
Re:Surprising? (Score:4, Informative)
As the two anonymous cowards pointed out, trademarks are not global. When applying for a trademark, the business in which the trademark will be used must be listed. So when applying for a trademark for Sephir, your original trademark only covers transportation. A Sephir ISP or cola could co-exist as long as neither brand makes an attempt to suggest that a relation exists. Doing something like "Sephir Cola, the perfect drink when driving your Fnord Sephir" would be a no-no. The same goes for "official" licensing: since Sephir Cola exists, Gurps Beverages can't offer "Gurps Cola Sephir Collector's Edition".
So since successful trademarks can expand into licensed merchandise, it is prudent to meet those with similar names, and define beforehand who gets what sector. Of course, this won't prevent legal battles down the road (see Apple Records versus Apple Computer)...
Re:Dasterdly Deutchmen (Score:4, Informative)
Why would Google want to put their services on each top-level domain? Just detect the web browser's language settings and present the German content.
THAT is the whole point: google never tried to take over gmail.de or g-mail.de or however is called. The "german" gmail claimed in court that somehow gmail.com used in Germany is affecting their trademark. The immediate effect (that was going on for years) was that you couldn't get a gmail.com (notice .com not DE) email if you come with a German IP - you would get a googlemail.com account instead and everything will be mostly transparent (gmail.com will go to googlemail.com, emails will reach you even if sent to name@gmail.com instead of name@googlemail.com and so on). Now it is even worse: gmail.com goes to this text page that says something like "you should go to mail.google.com but we are not allowed to give you a link here" (and presumably they can't redirect you automatically as before). YES, google is scared/forced not to to put a link to mail.google.com on gmail.com (of course they own both domains). Is this messed up or what?
Re:Silly Krauts (Score:3, Informative)
ö is expanded to "oe" not "oo"
What you wrote sounds closer to "gurgle" than Google.