14 DAY TRIAL // Google is very protective of its name, logo and all the things that are closely associated with its brand. Having such powerful branding, which is actually about to undergo some major changes, this makes a lot of sense. In some cases, though, it may get a little overzealous and things may not go the way it intended, like the Groovle.com dispute which was very recently settled in favor of Groovle. The dispute was over the domain name which Google claims is very similar to its own and can be misleading. The fact that Groovle.com offers users a way of customizing their search experience, by enabling them to use background image on a page similar to Google's homepage, certainly didn't help.
The National Arbitration Forum (NAF), the organization which handled the dispute, found in favor of the defendant saying that the name is sufficiently different as to not cause confusion between the two. What it means is that Groovle.com gets to keep its domain name.
"Respondent [Groovle.com] contends that its alterations clearly transform the predominant word of the <groovle.com> domain name to “groove” or “groovy,” not GOOGLE. Respondent contends that these alterations are sufficient to distinguish its <groovle.com> domain name from Complainant’s GOOGLE mark. The Panel agrees and finds that Respondent’s <groovle.com> domain name is not confusingly similar to Complainant’s GOOGLE mark," the NAF decision reads.
Groovle.com, though launched in 2007, is, in a way, a poor man's version of Bing, it adds the possibility to have a background image on the search homepage. However, it uses Google's own Custom Search API to create the new homepage, it doesn't actually alter the real Google homepage. The end result is, frankly, unimpressive despite its claims of being "immensely popular with young Internet users" and doesn't really make for a great substitute for the real Google homepage.
What's more, a quick search will reveal a number of similar services all of equally poor quality. Still, Google believed that the name was close enough to its trademark to enable it to claim the domain name as its own. The authorities clearly think otherwise and, for the time being, Groovle.com is staying with its current owner.