Google loses Gmail trademark case in Germany
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Blog: Google loses appeal of Gmail trademark case in Germany.
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Google Wins Keyword Trademark Ruling Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Watch posts on a legal victory for Google (I totally missed it) that basically allows Google to permit companies to use their competitors&#8217; brands as keywords (not as visible text or title tags). Barry points to a San Jose Mercury article and more technical legal analysis [...]
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A Belgian court has ordered Internet search company Google Inc. to stop publishing content from Belgian newspapers without permission or payment of fees, a Belgian press association said Monday.
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Google Inc. on Saturday published on  its Belgian website a court order which forbids the Internet  search engine to reproduce snippets of Belgian press on its  news amalgamation service.
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A Belgian court ruled on Tuesday that Google  may not reproduce extracts from a variety of Belgian newspapers, imperiling one of the web search leader's most popular services if other courts follow suit.
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Google responded on Friday to a lawsuit filed against it by Northeastern University, denying claims that its search service infringes on patented technology.Google denied all charges in the suit, which was&#160;filed jointly by Northeastern, of Boston, and a search technology company called Jarg, of Waltham, Mass. Google also filed a counterclaim asking the court to dismiss the patent as invalid.The&#160;suit was filed in November&#160;in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. It seeks an injunction preventing Google from further infringement, as well as royalty payments and damages.The patent in question describes a distributed database system that breaks queries into fragments and distributes them to multiple computers in a network to get faster search results.The plaintiffs say that Google uses this system to run its search engine, and that the system was invented by Kenneth Baclawski, an associate professor at Northeastern and one of Jarg&#39;s founders. Northeastern was awarded a patent for the system, which it has licensed exclusively to Jarg.In its response Friday, Google argued that the patent is invalid and should not have been awarded in the first place. It cites various sections of U.S. patent law, including those that deal with the novelty of an invention and prior art. It also cites the doctrine of &quot;laches,&quot; which essentially requires plaintiffs to file lawsuits in a timely manner.Its counterclaim asks the court to declare the patent invalid and unenforceable.Both parties have requested a jury trial, and legal experts have said the case could be resolved in 18 months to two years.The U.S. patent, number 5,694,593, is dated Dec. 2, 1997, and can be viewed by searching the Web site of the U.S. Patent &amp; Trademark Office. U.S. patent law is also described on the USPTO Web site in this PDF file. Google&#39;s reply cites sections 101, 102, 103, and 112.
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A federal judge on Wednesday handed online search engine Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) a victory in a trademark infringement case on Wednesday, ruling
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ALEXANDRIA, Va.  - A federal judge on Wednesday  handed online search engine Google Inc. GOOG.O a victory in a  trademark infringement case on Wednesday, ruling that when  users searched for insurer GEICO, Google could display rivals  as well.
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Anonymity is verboten Google is threatening to close the German version of Gmail if the Bundestag goes through with new laws to ban anonymous email accounts.â¦
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Google Faces Another Keyword Lawsuit  Another lawsuit has been filed against Google because of the trademarked keyterms that companies bid for in the AdWords keyword advertising program.  Next week Google will head over to a German courtroom where it will continue to defend its technology against Metaspinner Media GmbH.  Neowin reports ...
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A federal appeals court handed Google Inc a setback in a patent fight on Wednesday, tossing out part of a summary judgment in the Web search engine's favor in a lawsuit filed by HyperphRase Technologies, LLC.
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(InfoWorld) - Google can't use the Gmail name in Germany because doing so would infringe on someone else's trademark, a German court has ruled. Google regrets the decision by the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court but said the ruling will not affect its ability to offer the Web-based mail service in Germany, Google Senior Legal Counsel Arnd Haller said in a statement. As in the U.K., where it likewise doesn't own the Gmail trademark, Google provides the service under the name "Google Mail" in Germany. "We have also applied for the registration of 'Gmail' as a EU-trademark on the territory of the European Union and are allowed to use it with one exception in Germany and one in the U.K.," said a Google spokeswoman in the U.K. Google launched its Gmail Webmail service in 2004 and owns the "Gmail" trademark in more than 60 countries, according to the company. In Germany, Google launched its Webmail service in 2005, initially under the "Gmail" brand, said Kay Oberbeck, Google's head of communications and public affairs for Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Scandinavia. However, Google changed the service's name to "Google Mail" after Daniel Giersch objected to the use of the name in Germany and successfully sued the company. The appeals court that sided with Giersch on Wednesday will probably take several months to publish its reasons for reaching its decision, Oberbeck said in a phone interview Thursday. Once Google has had a chance to read the court's grounds for Wednesday's decision, it will decide whether it will drop the matter or try to take it to Germany's Supreme Court, Oberbeck said. Giersch, a 33-year old entrepreneur, said that the German court declared that Google can't use the name "Gmail" in Germany because it would infringe on his "G-mail" trademark. He registered the "G-mail" trademark in Germany in 2000 and has been battling Google in German courts for the past three years, according to Giersch. There are ongoing legal proceedings between Giersch and Google over the "Gmail" name in Spain, Portugal, and Switzerland, according to Giersch. Oberbeck said Google recently took Giersch to court in Austria to prevent him from setting up a business under the Gmail name there. As part of that case's resolution several weeks ago, Giersch signed a cease-and-desist declaration stating he would not offer any services under the "Gmail" name in Europe, excluding Germany and the non-EU countries of Monaco, Norway, and Switzerland, the U.S. spokesman said. However, Giersch takes issue with this account, saying he didn't sign any cease-and-desist declarations as a result of the Austrian case. Giersch said he told the Austrian court what he has told the Switzerland court: That he's only interested in using the "G-mail" name in Germany, Monaco, Norway, and Switzerland. "That's where I registered my marks, that's where I do business, and that's all I want," he said. Google disputes Giersch's assertion that he owns a trademark for "G-mail" at all in Germany. "He owns a colored, succinctly designed word/device mark for the black/yellow logo 'G-mail,'" the Google U.S. spokesman said. That logo can be seen on the home page of Giersch's G-mail company Web site. G-mail, operated by Giersch's P1privat near Hamburg, Germany, provides what Giersch describes as a "hybrid" mail service that combines e-mail and regular mail. Giersch, who is based in Monaco, isn't interested in selling Google ownership of the name in dispute but rather is interested in growing his G-mail business, whose commercial operations he launched in 2000, he said. The G-mail operation has about 10 full-time employees and 45 part-timers and subcontractors. Google doesn't use the Gmail name in the U.K. because it is currently trademarked by someone else. Google representatives didn't know who the owner of the Gmail name is in the U.K. nor whether Google is currently making any attempts to secure the name there. They confirmed the owner isn't Giersch. In Switzerland, both Google and Giersch have the right to use the Gmail name, Oberbeck said. According to Giersch, he will seek to prevent Google's use of the Gmail name in that country.
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Adwords still stands strong A US retailer has dropped (pdf) a suit against Google which challenged the trademark policy of its keyword advertising system, AdWords. American Blinds &amp; Wallpaper Factory (ABWF) has withdrawn its long-running action against Google.â¦
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The court ordered Google to remove all links to French- and German-language newspaper reports published in Belgium.
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Google won a major legal victory Wednesday when a US judge said the search engine could continue to sell ads triggered by searches that use trademarked company names.
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A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a key element of insurer Geico&#39;s trademark infringement case against online search engine Google.
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Court sends patent suit back to lower court in case over Google's AutoLink toolbar feature.