back to article US judges say you can Google Google, but you can't google Google

Google has won the rights to keep its name a proper trademark after a US court found its search engine is not quite ubiquitous enough to be considered a generic term. The three-judge panel in the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the Mountain View advertising giant can keep the trademark it holds on "Google," …

  1. Frumious Bandersnatch

    lmgtfy

    Probably still fine, I guess, since it's showing you how to use the big G.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I have seldom binged but sure have googled a lot; are many people binging?

    1. frank ly

      I used to binge at the weekend but I stopped it as I got older. Getting out of bed on a Monday was becoming a problem.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      We yahooed a lot, but we wikied like no one. The other day, we pretend we binged in just to google our way out. We're still better than that guy that amazoned all the way out. Maybe he should have duckduckwent his way. Now he surely will be facebooking his loads of Appled product or he will be windowing his room. Alternatively, he could have linux them with us and we could instagram for him. Then again, his is too snapchatted while whatsapping.

      I might be missing something, but how do I el-register while el-registering?

      1. Bilious

        National modding

        In my language we do not use the oo spelling of g-oo-gle, so I've invented the verb "guggle" instead. That's a non-word, unknown in dictionaries, so I don't need to use uppercase.

        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: National modding

          "That's a non-word, unknown in dictionaries, so I don't need to use uppercase."

          Sorry but: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/guggle

      2. Julian Bradfield

        "should have duckduckgone", shurely?

    3. MrDamage Silver badge

      She googled my yahoo until I binged over her facebook.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        So rather a disappointing result for her, then.

      2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        I Altavistad when I was younger - it was a crazier more experimental world back then

        1. Marshalltown

          Ah - Alta Vista

          It had a vastly superior search syntax to G*****. Among other things you could make a soft criteria for related terms within a certain proximity (number or words) in a document with none of the "Did you mean ...." crud. With ads priotized the usefulness of the big G is even more limited.

    4. Glenturret Single Malt

      What will happen when Duck Duck Go takes over as the first choice of search engine?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Duck Duck Go will have changed its name to Google.

    5. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      "I have seldom binged but sure have googled a lot; are many people binging?"

      MS tried, with their Bing It! campaign, but I've never heard anyone say that in real life.

  3. LaeMing

    I prefer to "websearch"

    1. Hollerithevo

      But it lacks punch, as in...

      ..."Let me google that for you."

      1. NonSSL-Login

        Re: But it lacks punch, as in...

        Let me duck that up for you

  4. Palpy
    Joke

    I've been known to --

    -- Ixquick now and then, searching for "chicks quick". Seldom Yandex unless wearing Spandex.

  5. Lars Silver badge
    Coat

    About Aspirin as a Trademark

    From the Wiki:

    "Trademark

    Due to allowing the use of "Aspirin" for years by other manufacturing chemists, despite the trademark-infringing nature of the use, and its own failure to use the name for its own product when it began selling direct, Bayer lost its trademark in the United States in 1918, affirmed by court appeal in 1921.[155] Today, aspirin is a generic word in Australia, France, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Jamaica, Colombia, the Philippines, South Africa, Ghana, the United Kingdom and the United States.[156] Aspirin, with a capital "A", remains a registered trademark of Bayer in Germany, Canada, Mexico, and in over 80 other countries, where the trademark is owned by Bayer, using acetylsalicylic acid in all markets, but using different packaging and physical aspects for each".

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Think of the mess that would occur if Google lost their trademark. Criminal enterprises would love it.

    Who funded the trademark challenge? Did all the crooks throw in a Bitcoin?

    1. nathanm

      "Criminal enterprises would love it."

      Because up until now, criminal enterprises have been terrified of the repercussions of trademark infringement.

  7. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    "Google has won the rights to keep its name a proper trademark after a US court found its search engine is not quite ubiquitous enough to be considered a generic term."

    So, the judges in the US Ninth District Court of Appeals are all using StartPage? Smart move, if true.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "[...] are all using StartPage?"

      IIRC that is an indirect Google search.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If Bing was more popular

    And people were regularly using the word "googling" to mean looking up stuff on Bing, then it might be generic...

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: If Bing was more popular

      Well they're certainly not using the word "binging".

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: If Bing was more popular

        My grandson refers to Bing as Bling.

        no direct use of google.co.uk (or .com) for more than a year. Gotta keep them on starvation rations when it comes to knowing about my life. you never know who they (google/alphabet) are going to sell your search history to.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Coat

        Re: If Bing was more popular

        What if you were to throw them a bung?

      3. P. Lee

        Re: If Bing was more popular

        Except on NCIS, where you can even find the Less Spotted Windows Phone in its last remaining natural habitat - the sponsored pitch.

        "Let me Bing that for you."

        Say Whaaht?

    2. Putters

      Re: If Bing was more popular

      The only time I use Bing is when I want to bring up a map.

      Not only are Bing's aerial shots sometimes more up to date than the Google equivalent, but the BIG bonus is that Bing has proper OS maps in the proper colours - both at Landranger and Explorer level.

      And not even the OS site has that.

      1. Jelder

        Re: If Bing was more popular

        You mean like https://osmaps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/

        Behind a paywall, admittedly. Does add more features though.

    3. Adam 52 Silver badge

      Re: If Bing was more popular

      I've just finished a foundation degree. I only noticed after a few bad marks that the coursework answers that the examiner wanted were all on the front page of Google but nowhere to be found on Bing and Startpage.

  9. Ken Hagan Gold badge

    That big G...

    We don't have proper verbs in English, so you can't "Google" anything without offending a grammar nazi. If Google want to protect their name, they should insist that people google with a trademark annotation.

    1. Nick Kew
      Coat

      Really?

      Do you hoover the floor or Hoover it?

      'scuse me while I go and roomba mine.

      1. Named coward

        Re: Really?

        "Do you hoover the floor or Hoover it?"

        People from Hoover hoover their floors with their Hoover hoovers.

        1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          Re: Really?

          In 2017 shouldn't we be able to hoover our floors with our hover Hoovers ?

          1. Tom 38

            Re: Really?

            Hover hoovers suck though

            1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

              Re: Really?

              "Hover hoovers suck though"

              No, they blow!

  10. M7S

    "evidence regarding T‑Pain's inner thought process"

    That could be an amusing day in court

  11. Anonymous Coward Silver badge
    Headmaster

    It's a mistake

    All this hassle over a simple spelling mistake. The company was meant to be called googol (after the number), but the bloke doing the domain registration spelled it wrongly.

    1. Hollerithevo

      Re: It's a mistake

      Or, it was correct, after Barney Google, in the popular song that will now live forever.

    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: It's a mistake

      It was deliberately re-spelled so it could be trademarked.

      You can't trademark a number - unkless you are the MPAA

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: It's a mistake

        You can trademark a number, I think, but its scope would be severely limited, as in another media couldn't use the title, but you lose outside your industry. Also, variants on the number have more latitude.

        1. Trigonoceps occipitalis

          Re: It's a mistake

          4711 eau de Cologne (4-7-11).

      2. katrinab Silver badge

        Re: It's a mistake

        Three is trademarked as a telephone company. Also Orange, no longer around in the UK, but they still exist in France.

  12. Michael Nidd
    Alert

    Don't do it!

    Whatever you do, don't type Google into Google or you will break the Internet!

    1. AceRimmer1980
      Linux

      Re: Don't do it!

      It's OK, there's a spare one in Big Ben.

  13. Mike 137 Silver badge
    Headmaster

    genericide

    an interestng offence in US law: the act of killing something that has no distinguishing attributes.

    1. The Nazz

      Re: genericide

      Now you tell me, sigh.

      I knew i should've gotten the now ex a one way ticket to that Florida vacation.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: genericide

        As opposed to countryside ?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: genericide

      if there are no distinguishing attributes how would you know you killed it?

  14. paulkingnz

    shall we google the judges

    I think an intensive google should be done to determine if the judges or their partners have come into any large sums of money lately or have new cars in their driveways sponsored by other people.

  15. AceRimmer1980
    Coat

    Videotape (tm)

    That's an interesting one, who owned the trademark 'Videotape', and what was it called, if not videotape?

    1. Steve the Cynic

      Re: Videotape (tm)

      In https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericized_trademarks the Unreliable Source claims it was Ampex Corporation, "an early manufacturer of audio and video tape recorders".

    2. Named coward

      Re: Videotape (tm)

      That one sounds like lawyer games...the terms "video" (from latin) and "tape" (also in related tape recorder) were already used before so they just combined them and trademarked it.

      1. Charles 9

        Re: Videotape (tm)

        What about "Cinerama," a portmanteau of cinema and panorama?

      2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Videotape (tm)

        "That one sounds like lawyer games...the terms "video" (from latin) and "tape" (also in related tape recorder) were already used before so they just combined them and trademarked it."

        Apple Storetm

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    the beauty of common usage of words

    Is that the longer the average person-in-the-street (on the keyboard?) keeps using "google" to refer to searching the web, the more likely that lowercase "google" - sans (R) or TM - will appear in a prestigious dictionary as meaning "web search".

    whether this is good for Google, or dilutes its brand, I care not. It's just what will happen.

    1. Dazed and Confused

      Re: the beauty of common usage of words

      lowercase "google" - sans (R) or TM - will appear in a prestigious dictionary as meaning "web search".

      or maybe they've list "websearch" as meaning "to google something"

    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: the beauty of common usage of words

      But so long as the person in the street uses google to mean search the web but uses Google to search it then it isn't generic.

      So thanks to its monopoly among non-register readers Google gets to keep its trademark

  17. DropBear
    Trollface

    T‑Pain: Google my name!

    Me: Nnnnnnnope!

    1. The Nazz

      foolish me

      I did, and it brought up two choices, both alternative words for a female orifice.

      Who says AI is going nowhere?

  18. John H Woods Silver badge
    Facepalm

    34 posts and no mention of ...

    ... Finder-Spyder ... !?

    If you're puzzled, call me on 555-0126 and I'll explain

  19. RyokuMas
    Mushroom

    They can keep their trademark...

    I'll stick to "search the web" in common parlance - any cretin that doesn't understand this but does understand "Google it" a) deserves to have all their private data slurped and b) probably should not be using a computer.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bing

    My mum uses bing a lot - her favorite search term is ...'google' :)

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    That new name

    Did Google manage to finagle a trademark on Alphabet?

    If so, since it's a holding company for a little of everything, is anything safe from their lawyers?

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Genericide

    I love that word!

    If I manage to kill myself by consuming too many supermarket generic products, would I be committing genericide?

    Death by Generic Products!

    Guy: Dude, you can't commit suicide with Domestos, that's tragic.

    Guy 2: Nah bro, this is store brand bleach, I'm committing genericide.

    Guy: Aight, s'cool then.

  23. Charles 9

    Hmm. Just occurred to me after a whole article and this many comments no one's managed to connect this Google decision to the ol' Xerox. Like in the days when you went to "xerox" something?

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