As long as the primary meaning is to

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Aconferred by the trademark if ... after the date of registration the trademark has become as a result of the owners action or inaction customary in trade in a product or service for which it was registered . Is Google the new victim of degeneration In a lawsuit in Arizona two people argued that it did. They argued that the public uses google as a generic word for the act of searching on the Internet instead of search on the Internet just google an expression that has also become common in Romanian. They tried to cancel the registration of the Google trademark in an effort to protect their registration of hundreds of domain names containing the word google. In Elliott v. Google no.

The Arizona district court rejected Googles argument that the Country Email List mark had become customary and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision. According to the court the question is not whether the public sometimes uses google generically to refer to an Internet search. The question is whether the primary meaning in the public mind of the word google is to identify the act of searching the Internet or a particular search engine provider. identify to whom it provides the servicefor example to distinguish Google from Microsoft which provides the Bing search servicethe mark is far from ordinary.




The court held that the plaintiffs had failed to prove that google had become commonplace and dismissed the request to cancel Googles trademark registration. Proving the degeneration of a mark is difficult. This case however is a reminder that brand ownersespecially those whose products or services become wellknownshould be vigilant to ensure that the public understands that their brands indicate who provides the product or service rather than the product or the service itself. Leave a reply Your email address will not be published. Mandatory fields are marked with Comment Name Email Site web.