Froogles sued by Google

April 21, 2005

Get the most dependable Linux or Windows Web hosting at the lowest cost. Domain names at only $5.99 for a whole year. Click here to learn more.

Froogles today was served a lawsuit by Google, charging it with trademark infringement over Google's rightly-owned Froogle comparison shopping search engine.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google, the No. 1 search engine, filed a 68-page complaint against Froogles.com in the Eastern District Court of New York.

The complaint alleges that Froogles.com proprietor Richard Wolfe, a New York state resident, illegally traded on Google's famous name and search brand for profit with a "nearly identical" mark.

"Upon information and belief, the defendant selected the mark Froogles with full knowledge of Google's prior rights in its Google name and mark," according to the filing. "As between the parties, Google is the senior user of marks that incorporate the formative--Oogle for Internet search services."

Google asked the court to shut down its rival and order transfer of the domain name, among other relief.

The case is only the latest legal showdown for Google, whose multibillion-dollar advertising and search business has become a wide target for complaints. The search giant faces several trademark infringement cases of its own, including complaints against its paid-search services in the United States and abroad.

The legal spat with Froogles.com goes back more than a year, when Wolfe filed a petition against approval for Google's trademark, Froogle, which was granted in February 2004. The search giant contends in the filing that its rival has instilled false doubt over Google's legal right to the shopping brand.

The proprietor of Froogles.com registered the Web address in December 2000, according to the filing, but did not use the domain for business until July 2002. Google claims that this was four years after it had secured rights to its Google trademarks. Froogles.com registered for a trademark for e-commerce related marketing services in September 2003.

For its part, Google filed a trademark application for Froogle in November 2002, and was granted the mark in February 2004.

Source: C-Net News

[an error occurred while processing the directive]

Read Serge Thibodeau's daily blogs on search engines at Serge Thibodeau Live. We strongly suggest you bookmark our web site by clicking here.

Tired of receiving unwanted spam in your in box? Get SpamArrest� and put a stop to all that SPAM. Click here and get rid of SPAM forever!

Get your business or company listed in the Global Business Listing directory and increase your business. It takes less then 24 hours to get a premium listing in the most powerful business search engine there is. Click here to find out all about it.

Rank for $ales strongly recommends the use of WordTracker to effectively identify all your right industry keywords. Accurate identification of the right keywords and key phrases used in your industry is the first basic step in any serious search engine optimization program. Click here to start your keyword and key phrase research.

Pay Rank for $ales securely with your Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express credit card through the secure PayPal network. (Note: PayPal is an eBay company, and maintains a net free capital of US $ 50 Million).

You can link to the Rank for Sales web site as much as you like. Read our section on how your company can participate in our reciprocal link exchange program and increase your rankings in all the major search engines such as Google, AltaVista, Yahoo and all the others.

Powered by Sun Hosting Sponsored by Avantex Traffic stats by Site Clicks�

Site design by Mtl. Web D. Sponsored by Press Broadcast Sponsored by Blog Hosting.ca

Call Rank for Sales toll free from anywhere in the US or Canada: 1-800-631-3221
email: info@rankforsales.com