“Google” will not become a generic term, like aspirin, Kleenex and Velcro. That’s after a federal appeals court decision Tuesday to protect the trademark.
It’s an ongoing legal fight by companies whose names gain such recognition that their brands become synonymous with their product categories.
Thermos and styrofoam are examples. Q-tips and Xerox are not as those have retained trademark ownership of their brand names. Google now joins that list after the company prevailed in an appeals court case, originally filed in an Arizona federal court.
The case stems from 2012 when Google accused Chris Gillespie of cybersquatting by purchasing over 750 domain names that included the word Google.
Gillespie asked the Arizona court to cancel Google’s trademark arguing “googling” is a well-known verb, synonymous with internet searching.
The Arizona judge denied the request. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has now upheld the Arizona court’s ruling.
