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Independent International Investment Research (IIIR) is near to a settlement with Google regarding its claim to the Gmail trademark in the United States, according to a request for extension filed by IIIR at the US Patent and Trademark Office.

According to the motion:

The parties to this proceeding have been engaged in active and detailed settlement negotiations and appear now to be close to reaching a settlement….

[Google] recently (only hours before of the filing of the present motion) requested a revised draft agreement from Petitioner's counsel which will incorporate the remaining terms which had been, but may no longer be at issue.

IIIR requested the 30-day extension to finish negotiating the settlement, rather than respond to Google's motion for summary judgment that IIIR had abandoned its claim to the Gmail trademark in the US, and also cited time zone differences as a reason for delay.

According to Google's motion for summary judgment, filed at the end of August, if a mark hasn't been used for three years, it is considered abandoned.

In that same motion, however, it is noted that IIIR came just shy of the three-year non-use rule. Nonetheless, it appeared Google's argument was that it was close enough to count.

Perhaps Google has changed its mind about that, as IIIR claims that during the 30-day extension period the two companies will either settle or move on to litigation.

American companies, especially Google, generally don't respond to request for comment regarding ongoing legal matters, but we should know whether there is a settlement or not by the first of November.