Google Forced to Give Up on the Name 'Gmail'

Google has announced that it will stop using the name "Gmail" for its UK web e-mail service. This decision came after the search engine and the British company, Independent International Investment Research, which operates a service with the same name, G-mail (available since 2002), failed to reach an agreement.

Google launched is web e-mail service in UK in April 2004, at the time when IIIR had already registered the name "G-mail" with the Patent and Trademark Office. Therefore, Google is forced to employ in the UK the name "Google Mail".

Google has had trouble before with the name Gmail. In Germany, the search engine has been also forced to change the name of its web e-mail service, due to similar problems.

In fact, it's not clear who and how is entitled to use the name of Gmail in Europe, because the German company Giersch Ventures registered the name five years ago, even before IIIR.

These kinds of conflicts are not something new. After Microsoft has announced that its next OS will contain the name Vista, there were several organizations which protested against the Redmond company.

Another company that had trademark problems this year was Apple, when finding out that the itunes.co.uk domain had already been registered by another party.