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ARTICLE · 07 OCTOBER 2014

Arizona Court Rules "Google" Not A Generic Term

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"Google" and the verb "Googling" are not generic terms, the United States District Court for the District of Arizona has ruled. See Elliot v. Google, Inc.

United StatesIntellectual Property
Naresh Kilaru
Naresh Kilaru
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"Google" and the verb "Googling" are not generic terms, the United States District Court for the District of Arizona has ruled. See Elliot v. Google, Inc., 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 127352 (D. Ariz. Sept. 10, 2014).

The lawsuit started in 2012 when plaintiffs David Elliot and Chris Gillespie acquired 763 domain names combining the word "google" with another term, e.g., googledisney.com, googlebarackobama.net, googlemexicocity.com. After Google filed a UDRP complaint, the UDRP panel determined that the domain names were confusingly similar to the GOOGLE mark and ordered that they be transferred to the search-engine company. The plaintiffs then filed the present suit seeking cancelation of two of Google's U.S. trademark registrations for the GOOGLE mark on grounds of genericness, arguing that "a majority of the public understands the word google, when used as a verb, to mean the indiscriminate act of searching on the internet without regard to the search engine used."

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