A recent case in the United Kingdom resulted in a rare victory for the small(ish) man against the large corporation. The cause was the illegal use of the trademarked term gmail by the all-conquering Google Inc., purveyors of internet search to the stars.
The UK owners of the trademark gmail have now petitioned in the US for the rights to use the gmail mark. Their claim is that Google registered gmail 4 days after they did - and evidently got away with it. It's alleged that Big G, having realised its mistake, went ahead and bought a prior application by another company for the same trademark. The problem for Google is that the gmail trademark was not in commercial use in the US when they bought it and so their claim for priority may be bogus. You can see the details here.
It would be easy to pour scorn on Google for its claims to be 'ethical' when it has resorted to what appear to be devious methods to cover up its own failures. It has certainly shown itself to be obsessive over trademarks, scattergunning for websites with names similar to g**gl*. Even words like googling have come under its Sauron-esque gaze.
The problem is both with the law itself and with the commonly held picture of a company. In law a company is treated like a person, an indivisible individual, which reflects the common view. Of course a company is, by definition, more than one person and large companies are made up of a wide range of individuals, from krypto-technophile to voracious corporate hyena. In G's case the failure to register gmail in time was clearly not down to the technicians. Nor was the attempt to cover up the omission.
Google has done much good in its short time and people have responded by using its search service. It will be a shame if it lets the seedier side of corporate existence undermine its technical achievements.
The net result of all these Machiavellian moves and counter-moves is that you may in future get emails from joe@googlemail.com as opposed to joe@gmail.com. That's what all those millions in legal fees will have bought.
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