Beijing Guge Science and Technology says search engine’s name in China is too much like company’s, creating disruption, confusion…
In Germany, Google’s already lost its hold on the term “Gmail”; now Beijing Guge Science and Technology has challenged the company’s right to use the Chinese version of “Google” itself.
A spokesman for Beijing Guge Science and Technology said similarities between its name and Google’s commercial name have created confusion among people who, in trying to contact the search engine, mistakenly call Beijing Guge’s office and disrupt work there.
“We want Google to change their commercial name, and are not suing for any damages,” Tian Yunshan, company secretary for Beijing Guge Science and Technology Co, told Bloomberg News in a telephonic interview.
The search engine’s Chinese name–a transliteration of the English word “Google”–was also used in Beijing Guge’s commercially registered name, Tian said.
People searching for Google through a local telephone directory assistance service were invariably directed to Beijing Guge because the search engine was not listed, Tian explained.
“We have already passed our demands on to Google … We will see what happens in court.” The case against Google’s Chinese unit has been accepted by a Haidian district court in Beijing on June 29, he said.
Tian declined to comment on Beijing Guge’s operations or its products or services, saying it was “not convenient” to disclose such details.
Mountain View, California-based Google said in April 2006 that its China unit would change its name to “Gu Ge,” which means “harvesting song” in Chinese, to attract more users in the worlds second-biggest online market.
As early as January 2006, Google filed trademark applications in a variety of areas to register “Gu Ge” with China’s Trademark Office of State Administration for Industry & Commerce, Google China said in an e-mail.
It was not immediately clear if the case has any chance of success.
Still, Google China may not be doomed to lose this battle, as Joel Martinsen of Danwei relates a bit of information from a new Beijing News piece: “Beijing Guge opened for business on 19 April, 2006, or one week after Google announced its new Chinese name the 12th.”
Martinsen later adds, “The general feeling online is that Beijing Guge chose its name out of opportunistic motives and filed its complaint in a bid to profit from the media attention.”
China had 144 million Web users as of the end of April, according to government data. The United States had 211.1 million Internet users at the end of March, according to the Website of Internet World Stats.
Google’s struggles in China have been well-documented; having to start over with a new name would be disastrous. Alternately, if the Chinese government gives Google a win, it may be a sign that the American search giant’s luck is improving.
Google China does not comment on ongoing lawsuits, Marsha Wang, a spokeswoman for Google China, said in an e-mail.