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From The Times
August 21, 2004

Rivals beat Google to own trademark

By Tosin Sulaiman

AFTER a shambolic few weeks for Google, including an ill-judged interview with Playboy and failure to raise the expected $3 billion for a flotation, its owners must have hoped for better news.

However, the launch of their breakthrough new e-mail service has been thrown into confusion after Google did not register the service’s name, Gmail, as a trademark quickly enough.

Three other companies have got there first, including a London investment house which already runs a service called Gmail and lodged an application 48 hours after Google’s launch. The US Patents and Trademark Office consider applications on a first-come-first-served basis.

As a result, the name “Gmail”, which was launched in a blaze of publicity three months ago, may have to be scrapped. It is unclear whether, if this happens, they will also have to abandon the @gmail.com domain and e-mail addresses that have already been allocated. Google legitimately owns the “gmail.com” internet name, but it is not clear what will happen if it does not gain the trademark.

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