The company that stopped Google from using the Gmail name for its email system in the UK has dropped its own G-Mail service, in what it insists is only a temporary measure.
The chief executive of Independent International Investment Research (IIR), Shane Smith, told ZDNet UK said that the ongoing action against Google had "become a distraction" and said that he had taken the step of dropping the service from his company's product line in order to "focus on the business".
In October 2005, Google said it was dropping the use of the Gmail name in the UK of its own volition because "trying to work things out has become distracting and annoying".
Google then renamed Gmail as Google Mail in the UK, but only applied the new name to the email addresses of new users. Existing users continue to use their existing email addresses.
"That is part of the problem," said Smith. "They say that they have dropped the name but they haven't really — they continue to use it in the UK."
Smith said he was anxious to prevent confusion between Google's offering and his own company's service, which is a specialised investment advisory system which works by delivering targeted emails to his customers and his customers' customers.
Smith maintains that he took action originally because "it is no small thing for a company of our size to launch and position a new product — we have already wasted a lot of effort."
As far as Smith is concerned, IIR has established the right to use the G-Mail name in the UK, the rest of Europe and the US through prior use and his company continues to try and get that principle established.
But the use of the Gmail, or G-Mail, name continues to be a source of confusion. Smith pointed out that there were other companies claiming the right to use the name in Canada, Germany — where Google also calls its service Google Mail — and Switzerland as well as other countries.
Google did not wish to comment on this latest development.
Talkback
Why did this company not regiser all the .com and .co.uk names ?
I'm a Gmail.com user in the UK and I do not see why Google should give up the use of this name , they registered the domain.
SJ, Swindon
Ditto . Can't see the problem. I have a gmail.com address as well and have not been at all confused by it. If Google had to give up the gmail.com domain then fair enough but as they have it and it is valid, why is there supposed to be a problem with where I live? I and my "friends" are not in the circle that would use or be aware of g-mail.
There's no confusion. IIIR are just making a mountain out of a molehill in the hope they can get a load of money out of Google.
For goodness sake move on will you.
IIR have the right to protect their intellectual property. There is a possibility that the perceived value of their Gmail service could be diminished by an unrelated service of the same name from Google, and a possibility that IIR's customers may be confused by Google's use of the name. Just because most Gmail users haven't heard of IIR or its Gmail service is irrelevant, as is the relative size of IIR and Google or whether IIR registered the domain name first.
If IIR are not the owner of a 'Gmail' registered trademark (which I don't think they are), then they have to prove ownership of an unregistered trade mark or service mark, which is harder than proving infringement of a registered trademark.
IIR don't seem to want to make money from selling Gmail to Google, they just want to protect the investment they've made in their service offering. As a small business owner with a couple of unregistered trademarks, I can sympathise with their position too.
Im with the other dudes, I am a gmail.com user and to be honest found it annoying when some other company had gmail.co.uk
the only confusion anyone might get out of this is someone trying to sign up to the mail and getting an investment company instead, no one is going to try and get investment advice through the email service.
THey are making a mountain out of a flat piece of land.
Sure if we have free gmail.com id's it looks bad if someone is creating an issue. But then that someone had he name first.
I would'nt trust Google to give this for free for long. Also its not very user friendly. If your a basic user its ok, not otherwise.
Gmail does not recieve attachments, many times even .zips's are returned. How the blazes can I block someone I don't like, in Yahoo its easy.
Looks like google are doing us a favour.
Also if they had treated the guy nice when he called them first, all this prob would,nt be there. Google ought to get it up their ar**