The Market Age claims copyright on "Gmail" after running free email service.

Other company claims copyright on Gmail

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[finextra.com...]

"07 April 2004 - Google's battle with privacy advocates over its forthcoming e-mail service has taken a back seat to a more pressing claim on its proposed GMail handle by UK financial analytics outfit The Market Age."

[Chndru]

"When the news came out about Google's Gmail last week, I went to the U.S. patent and trademark authorities. I thought maybe we were in trouble. But they hadn't (registered)," Shane Smith, group chief executive of Market Age, told Reuters on Wednesday.

He said that on Saturday he paid the $700 (440 pounds) in fees to register "Gmail" under the company's name. The Market Age never registered a "Gmail" Web domain, he added.

Reuters [reuters.co.uk]

[idoc]

Then why did they let the domain name sit on the deleted name list if it meant so much to them? Hope G squishes 'em.

[adfree]

Sounds as if it was part of a broader offering that might have its own branding and protection. Would be interesting to know if they were just interested in covering their needs or willing to go heads on with G, then, I would agree, they deserve to go down.

Nice upturn on their shares though...

[Shak]

could someone tell me in which country The Market Age have a trademark for "gmail"

?

Shak

[adfree]

Other than the newly registered one in the US as mentioned in the media I have not found any additional mention.

German media reports the same:
[spiegel.de...]

[ukgimp]

>>Hope G squishes 'em.

I cant disgree more.

From Reuters

"When the news came out about Google's Gmail last week, I went to the US patent and trademark authorities. I thought maybe we were in trouble. But they hadn't (registered),'' Shane Smith, group chief executive of Market Age, told Reuters on Wednesday.

He said that on Saturday he paid the $700 in fees to register "Gmail'' under the company's name. The Market Age never registered a "Gmail'' Web domain, he added.

[idoc]

The US trademarks and wordmarks go to first use in *this* country, not to someone who beats G to the patent office. Google announced April 1, and by their own admission these other guys had not even checked the US patent status until they heard of Googles announcement.

[Kirby]

USPTO regrading trademark or service mark:
[tess2.uspto.gov...]

USPTO regarding patent:
[patft.uspto.gov...]

My money is on Google.

[rogerd]

First commercial use is a key criteria, and somehow I think Google would have been able to spot previous online use of the term with a little, ummm, googling. In the US, at least, rushing down to the USPTO with money in hand doesn't prove anything.

[ILuvSrchEngines]

Well, it's always something new daily with Google....

[mcguffin]

From my experience, the US Patent and Trademark Database isn't an up-to-the-minute record of all applications.

It can take a month or more for a properly filed application to appear on the web database.

For example, this fall, my company filed for two marks, and they didn't appear in the online until January.

Specialized searches through subscription services can yield a more up-to-date listing of approved and pending marks. For all we know, Google's mark applications were properly filed a month ago at trademark offices around the world, and now they just sit in the mailroom waiting for processing.

I can't say that's the case, but it's very possible.

[Shak]

thought I would try somewhere else apart from Google for a search:

[s.teoma.com...]

[mooter.com...]

[gigablast.com...]

:)

Shak

[volatilegx]

AIM-listed The Market Age says its Pronet Analytics subsidiary has been operating a Web-based e-mail service called Gmail for nearly two years.

The GMail trademark is two years old. Google doesn't have a chance in hell to use it.

[JayC]

Hmm... came across this while searching for trademark stuff on "gmail" -- a patent application for "serving advertisements using information associated with e-mail."

[appft1.uspto.gov...]

It includes this comment under "Background:"

Search engines, such as Google for example, have enabled advertisers to target their ads so that they will be rendered in conjunction with a search results page responsive to a query that is relevant, presumably, to the ad. Although search result pages afford advertisers a great opportunity to target their ads to a more receptive audience, search result pages are merely a fraction of page views of the World Wide Web, and yet a smaller fraction of advertising opportunities.

[edit]
OK, apparently Jeffrey Dean of the above patent also patented the AdSense approach. Google is mentioned as an assignee on that patent [appft1.uspto.gov].
[/edit]

[beakertrail]

With an almost generic term like Gmail it is no surprise that someone else has been using the name for some time and not only that, it appears to be common usage if you look at the results churned up by the links in Shak's post.

Beaker

[robertskelton]

There is another GMail:
[usegmail.com...]

gmail.com existed long before Google. Presumably Google bought the gmail.com domain name, and quite likely they made a deal with anyone who could possibly successfully sue them

[the_nerd]

Who cares about the name Gmail? Word is out google wants to teach Yahoo a little lesson. Gmail is "poisoned"? They can use anything else and let people know on every SERP. Maybe GooMail ;)

hmmm - that's been taken already. Maybe it's not so easy to find a nice name , after all.

[celerityfm]

This is beginning to remind me of the whole Mozilla Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox flap.

Can't you guys register that trademark before announcing!? I can't believe they announced it and didn't register it, and someone else literally went in and registered it right out from under them.

I remember reading that the name was originally googlemail or something but that they liked Gmail better and I was thinking yeah but watch it be trademarked already... :(

[bird]

Can't you guys register that trademark before announcing!?

You don't need to register a trademark. All you need to do is "use it in commerce".

You can search the uspto database all you want, and you can even register your own. If someone else used the name before you for the same product category, your registration will become invalid. And if the original trademark owner can prove that you knew about his rights, you may even have to pay expensive fines for registering in bad faith.

[gniland]

Market Age has won regardless if they win or lose the copyright issue. Market Age spent $700 and received alot of free publicity.

Side Note - When google bought gmail.com from the expired domain list, did they reinstate the pagerank and backward links ;)

[sidyadav]

[theregister.co.uk...]

Google's path to world domination took a turn for the worse yesterday with news that a small British company has already got the trademark for Gmail and has been using it in 80 countries.

[gmail.net...]
[usegmail.com...]

Sid

[iamlost]

But don't they automatically own the letter "G" and all it's connotations and configurations simply because they are G**gle after all ... just like M$ owns Seattle, the USA, the World, the Solar System, the Milky Way, the Universe, ad nauseum just because ... well ... because!

Me thinks all those PHDs makes for too many chiefs with bright ideas and not enough (must be pc here) lower-order-of-magnitude-life-forms to proof the hypothesis before building another widget that won't.

[sidyadav]

oops.. there is already a discussion on this:
[webmasterworld.com...]

Sorry about that - admins - feel free to delete this thread.

Sid