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Industry Watch |
It's difficult times for Google, as it manages the imminent IPO, forks over a truckload of stock to Yahoo! in the patent settlement, and endures wilting media support. Now, a British company called Independent International Investment Research is claiming rights to the Gmail trademark.
Shane Smith, the chairman of IIIR, said at the company's annual meeting: "Our lawyers have been in contact with Google in relation to protection of our intellectual property in the trademark 'Gmail'. Our lawyers have emphasised our preference for an amicable solution and the dialogue continues."
1. Thanks for the further information on this topic.
Trademark registrations are frequently overlooked by companies and given short-shrift by unsophisticated intellectual property attorneys and general practice attorneys. Typical MBA programs are woefully inadequate on intellectual property issues and, as a result, I think we will see more and more of these types of stories as trademarks and brands are relied upon more to distinguish services on the Internet.
I think internetnews.com put it best: before choosing a name, shouldn't Google actually google the name first?
Douglas
PHOSITA: an intellectual property weblawg
www.okpatents.com/phosita/
Posted at 6:05AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Douglas Sorocco