Google’s unsuccessful EU wide trade mark application to register the name ‘G-mail’ shown here is a salutary lesson about the importance of registering rights to a brand early, and in all countries in which you hope to use it. When an EU application is successfully opposed in any one member state, as it was here, the entire application fails (although it may then be converted to individual country applications).
It is expected Google will appeal (see media report here) But in the meantime Google will not be using the name Gmail in Germany or the UK where the mark Gmail is registered by the Independent International Investment Research. This was also the subject of a dispute with Google (now settled on terms whereby Google agreed to use the word Googlemail instead of Gmail in the
3 comments:
According to the linked article, the German reg issued in 2000 and Google launched Gmail in 2004. So this may be more a lesson about trademark clearance than early registration.
Good point. Given its wealth, Google’s clearance search would cover not just of the CTM registers but also key country registers within the EU. However, smaller businesses are unlikely to do more than search the CTM registers because search costs are too high to be affordable, especially to clear a mark internationally.
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