Google and Gmail 'bogged down' in Europe

After Germany, Britain, Google ' giant ' has just lost its rights to use the Gmail brand in Switzerland, but it claims it will not have to change its email service name.

The Zurich Economic Court rejected Google's objections in the G-mail trademark dispute with a German investor. Daniel Giersch, owner of an e-mail service in Germany and Switzerland, is also using the G-mail brand (short for 'Giersch mail').

Google was very dissatisfied and argued that Mr. Giersch had registered the G-mail brand for the purpose of not being good, but the court dismissed the allegation. The 'Giant' is currently preparing to appeal.

However, the Google representative confirmed that they would not need to give up their familiar G-mail name in Switzerland because both parties still own the trademark. Both Giersch and Google are registered trademarks in Switzerland in 2005, but Google is "slower" than its competitors for several months.

Google's lawyer, Rose Hagan, said that the "incident" happened because the Swiss side did not check carefully before registering the trademark, they only compared the trademark registered with legal standards. not see if anyone registered the brand yet. After that, they left the two parties in dispute, suing each other, and Google chose to sue.

Ms. Hagan also affirmed that the court ruling did not affect Google's ability to use the brand.

On his side, Giersch considered this a victory. This is not the first time this German capitalist has "thrown down" the Giant. In 2006, he also won a lawsuit against Google in a trademark dispute in Germany. Google then had to rename its email service in Germany and also in England to Google Mail.

'The number of victories over Google has clearly shown what is right and wrong .' Mr. Giersch said in an email interview. He is now able to register the G-mail brand in Norway and Monaco.

At the same time, the Google representative confirmed that they were caught up in the Gmail.pl domain name dispute (Poland). Google believes that the domain name is owned by a speculator and was sold in November 2006.

Google spokesman Ricardo Reyes said 'The Giant' is trying to identify the legal owner of the Gmail.pl domain name since January. At that time, according to Mr. Reyes, this website is the blog of an organization called Grupa Mlodych Artystow i Literatow (English: Group of Young Artists and Writers - Group of artists and young writers), abbreviated as GMAiL.

Mr. Reyes said the Gmail.pl domain is still on sale, so Google 'believes that the Polish poetry website is just a scam.'

CNET News affirmed that all efforts to communicate with Polish artists were unsuccessful, but one member of the group, Izabela Krawczyk, still asserted GMAiL's domain ownership.

' We buy domain names legally, with our money. No one is not for us. We do not accept to be deprived of our property. 'Ms. Krawczyk said in an interview with AFP.

The European Union's brand-level agency recently decided not to allow Google to register the Gmail brand in member countries. However, Google representatives still affirm that this incident has no effect on Google's use of the brand and service quality in European countries, except Germany and the United Kingdom.

Hoang Minh