The American Chemical Society and Google have come to a quiet accord regarding a trademark lawsuit involving Google Scholar. The two institutions have settled the matter of court. The trademark lawsuit revolved around a 2004 legal complaint from ACS that Google was engaging in unfair competition practices.

The allegations were orbiting the free Google Scholar journal search service that was preferred to ACS's SciFinder Scholar. The American Chemical Society, one of the world's largest scientific organizations claimed that Google's free service was unfairly competing with their own. At the time, an ASC representative had this to say: "SciFinder Scholar is well-known and long has been well-received throughout the academic community, and we must protect our name and the good will the tool has already achieved.

Earlier this month the two parties settled the matter out of court in Washington D.C. They both presented a two-page document agreeing to take care of their own attorney fees.

"The ACS is pleased at the outcome of its lawsuit against Google," said ACS. "The settlement includes a confidentiality clause and as such the ACS will have no further comment."

Google has issued no formal comment on the occasion of the settlement.