Chinese Court Tosses Out Guge Lawsuit Against Google Over Name

from the nice-try dept

Thu, Dec 27th 2007 5:21pm — Mike Masnick

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.

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Filed Under: china, names, trademarks
Companies: google

5 Comments

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JDigital, 27 Dec 2007 @ 6:21pm

WOW
A logical thing from China, I knew they still had it in them! Way to go!
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Max Powers, 27 Dec 2007 @ 7:19pm

Money Involved
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.
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inc, 27 Dec 2007 @ 8:20pm

Re: Money Involved
payoff is such a dirty word... tax sounds cleaner
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Dec 2007 @ 9:28pm

Chinese Trademark Laws?
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.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Dec 2007 @ 9:56pm

Re: Chinese Trademark Laws?
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.
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