ARS Technica UK reports an interesting story from the US where the Supreme Court refused to review a petition which asserts that the term “google” is too generic and therefore cannot be a trademark anymore.
According to that petition, the word Google has been widely used as a term for searching on internet. Due to that fact, this trademark is no more eligible to serve as a trade source.
The Federal court ruled in that case last year considering that although Google is used as e term describing the process of searching on internet, it is still a valid trademark because Google offers other products too and the word is connected with different goods and services. What’s more, we have a generic term when the name has become an “exclusive descriptor” that makes it difficult for competitors to compete unless they use that name, which is not the case with Google.
More information here.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PLANET 