Google forced to drop Gmail name in the UK

GOOGLE HAS BEEN forced to rename its GMail email service in the UK because of a legal dispute.

In a statement, the $54.4 billion company says it has been involved in a "dispute regarding the Gmail trademark in the UK. Another company has claimed rights to the Gmail name. We have tried to resolve this dispute through negotiations," it says, "but our efforts have failed".

A London-based firm, Independent International Investment Research says it has been using the Gmail name for a web-mail application since 2002. The mail function of its online currency information tool Pronet is named Gmail.

"For our clients, Gmail is the most prominent function of the Pronet tool, it's a big green button that says 'Gmail'," IIIR's chairman and chief executive Shane Smith told BBC News. He claimed Google had "unilaterally" broke off negotiations over use of the name.

Google said that to, "avoid any distraction to Google and our users", its mail service would now be known as Googlemail in the UK. Although mail addresses and URL won't be changed immediately, Google says it doesn't know how long it can hold off before moving existing users to an @googlemail.com address. From today, new users in the UK will get an @googlemail.com address.

"The trademark issue is still unsettled," it says, "and unfortunately, we cannot predict what the other party or the courts might do here.

Settling the dispute could prove a costly business. A Google spokesman has already said that IIIR demanded an exorbitant sum. µ

L'INQ
The Beeb