ICANN Judges Rule Against Google

By Mike McDonald - Mon, 07/26/2004 - 10:29

An ICANN arbitration panel has rejected Google's claim that froogles.com was "confusingly similar" in name to Google.

Two out of the three judges on the panel concluded that Froogles and Google were sufficiently different from one another as to be easily identified as separate. The judges decided froogles "creates an entirely new word and conveys an entirely singular meaning from the mark."

The end result of the decision is that Froogles.com owner Richard Wolfe will retain the use of the name for his comparison-shopping site, at least for the time being. The issue could be pursued further in U.S. District Court.

Wolfe launched froogles.com in March 2001 and Google's shopping site, froogle.com was launched several months later in Dec. 2002. Wolfe has made a claim of his own with the U.S. Patent and trademark office that Googles shopping site, froogle.com, infringes on his froogles.com mark.

Mike is a manager at iEntry. He has been with iEntry since 2000.