No GMail in Europe any more

4th April 2008

Google did lost GMail in Europe. A specially authorized office in agreement on the EU Internet-market (OHIM) published an order prohibiting Google to use GMail as a trademark on the territory of the European Union. This order became a logical continuation of the case, lost by Google last summer in Germany. The fact is that already in 2000 a 33-year-old German businessman Daniel Giersch registered the trademark G-mail. He also filed a suit to the court against Google in 2005, one year after the launch of the postal service GMail worldwide.
As a result, Google lost the case and GMail was renamed into Google Mail. And since Germany is a full-fledged member of the EU, the decision of banning GMail would naturally spread over other countries in Europe - as it finally happened. Google filed an appeal, but it did not work out. According to the company, many brands contain the word â€œmailâ€ and, besides, GMail logo contains original set of colors used by Google, while G-Mail has a simple black-and-yellow logo. However, OHIM responded despite all that, the two brands have a common element of â€œGMailâ€, and this is the only thing that really matters.