Google threatens trademark action
17 June 2004
Web giant Google is threatening to sue an adult website portal for breach of trademark, according to reports from webpronews.com.
The complaint centres on the sites use of the domain name 'FreeBooble', but also relates to the design of the site, which quite evidently closely mirrors that of the world's most popular search engine.
Google is concerned that consumers may mistakenly believe the sites are associated and may damage their reputation as a result.
According to reports, the Google Trademark Enforcement Team e-mailed the company asking to take down their domain and transfer it to Google on the Jun 15.
In an interview with webpronews.com, a spokesman for Freebooble sought to dismiss the severity of the claims and the justification for the action.
"Get real now, who will confuse google.com and FreeBooble.com," he said.
He added that the website was merely a parody of another site, Booble.com, which incidentally is itself a parody of Google.
"When I received the email, I thought it was a spam or a joke, but I quickly realized it was the standard letter they usually send. But if they want court to clarify this, let's do it."
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