Google trademark concerns

[Scott Sadowsky]

On 2003-02-24 22:28, Paul McFedries wrote the following:

>I am trademark counsel for Google.  I have recently become aware of a
>definition of "google" on your website, www.wordspy.com.   This definition
>implies that "google" is a verb synonymous with "search."  Please note that
>Google is a trademark of Google Technology Inc.   Our brand is very
>important to us, and as I'm sure you'll understand, we want to make sure
>that when people use "Google," they are referring to the services our
>company provides and not to Internet searching in general....

I'm certainly no lawyer, so I decided to look up "trademark infringement"
in Black's:

"The unauthorized use of a trademark --or of a confusingly similar name,
word, symbol or any combination of these-- in connection with the same or
related goods or services and in a manner that is likely to cause
confusion, deception, or mistake about the source of the goods or services."

To me as a layman, the presence of a definition of "google" on your site
could hardly be further from trademark infringement:

1. You're not *using* the trademark at all -- you're simply providing
information about how some other people use it.

2. You're not providing goods or services that are even remotely related to
Google's: they provide internet search services, you provide information
about words.

3. There's no confusion, deception or mistake possible regarding the source
of these services: WordSpy does not sound even remotely like Google, and no
one could possible believe that Google's services are provided by WordSpy,
or vice versa.

But that's just a layman's impression, of course.  I do note, however, that
no part of the e-mail you received and posted here accuses you of trademark
infringement, or of anything else for that matter.  In fact, it strikes me
as a very carefully-worded message designed to make you think you've done
something wrong, illicit or illegal without ever actually saying so...
possibly because they know you haven't.

In any case, even if *using* this word with the meaning "to use any old
search engine" were illegal, I can't see how *mentioning* this use by
others could be.  I mean, murdering people is undoubtedly illegal, but
commenting on murders is most definitely not.

Best of luck,
Scott