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Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Thu, Dec 27th 2007 5:21pm




Filed Under:
china, names, trademarks

Companies:
google


Chinese Court Tosses Out Guge Lawsuit Against Google Over Name

from the nice-try dept

A few weeks ago we noted that a company named Guge was suing Google in China, claiming that Google ripped off its trademarked name by using the name Guge in that country. The problem? The company Guge only named itself that a few days after Google announced plans to use the name Guge in China. That seemed like a pretty blatant moneygrab, and thankfully, the Chinese courts have agreed, tossing out the lawsuit and allowing Google to continue to use the name.

5 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    WOW

    identicon
    JDigital, Dec 27th, 2007 @ 6:21pm

    A logical thing from China, I knew they still had it in them! Way to go!

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Money Involved

    identicon
    Max Powers, Dec 27th, 2007 @ 7:19pm

    Whenever I hear of a ruling in favor of a billion dollar business (especially from another country like China) I always have the thought "payoff" in the back of my mind.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    Re: Money Involved

    identicon
    inc, Dec 27th, 2007 @ 8:20pm

    payoff is such a dirty word... tax sounds cleaner

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  

    Chinese Trademark Laws?

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Dec 27th, 2007 @ 9:28pm

    I wonder how trademark laws work in China. As I understand it, in the US you have to register a trademark before you can get protection and the first to file gets the mark. You can't obtain protection just by issuing a "public announcement" in the US (as far as I know). Otherwise there would not be much incentive to go through the trouble to actually register a trademark. I guess things must be different in China.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  

    Re: Chinese Trademark Laws?

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Dec 27th, 2007 @ 9:56pm

    Things are very different in China. That should be obvious regardless of this story.

    Anyways, I had thought cases like this in the US had been thrown out before. Though lately they'd just go on down to Marshall Texas and get a free meal ticket.

    Its a good thing I have ethics I suppose, otherwise I'd jump on the easy money bandwagon too.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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