The Top 10 Trademark Battles That Swept 2017
5. Google LLC Vs Chris Gillespie
In 5th position is Google’s trademark case against an individual named Chris Gillespie, who has for years been trying to challenge the internet giant’s trademark to the word ‘google’ on the grounds of it now being a common term used by all.
Similar cases happened in the past, with hoover, thermos and aspirin. So, what does Google do now? The current legal battle has seen the US Supreme Court decline to review a petition against the trademarked word. The justices were told: “There is no single word other than google that conveys the action of searching the Internet using any search engine.”
The whole ordeal originated when Chris Gillespie, years back, registered 763 domain names with the term ‘Google’. Consequently, Google LLC intervened and he had to give them up. Since then Gillespie has been attempting to invalidate the official trademark for ‘Google’.
