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"Internet penetration levels are growing quickly in our Eastern and Central European markets and the web is becoming an increasingly important marketing tool for our International division. Domain names are at the heart of our online growth strategy and are fundamental to our business. We have had great success using campaign-specific domain names to capture public interest for our Provident brand. We're confident that our online brands are in safe hands with NetNames and that we're always ready to take advantage of any new opportunities or respond to potential threats."

Alison Shield, Digital Media Manager at Provident Financial

Google losing battle for Gmail name

28 February 2007

Google has lost a legal attempt to regain control of the Gmail trademark in Europe where it does not own the German gmail.de or Polish gmail.pl domain names. It also faces a major branding dilemma if attempts to regain control of the Chinese gmail.cn domain name fail.

On Monday this week  the Zurich Commercial Court dismissed Google’s case against German entrepreneur Daniel Giersch, who owns the gmail.de domain name. Giersch runs a small postal delivery business in Germany and Switzerland that goes by the brand names of ‘G-Mail’ and ‘Giersch Mail’.

The ruling is a major blow for Google, the world’s most popular search engine, which is fighting to consolidate its trademark globally. Google has also launched legal action against a group of Polish poets who are using the gmail.pl domain name.

Big trouble looms in China

The most serious challenge facing the search engine is for control of the gmail.cn domain name in China, the world’s second largest internet market. Gmail.cn is owned by ISM Technologies, one of China’s largest wholesale domain registrars and is accredited by the Chinese government. However, legislative differences between China, Europe and the US mean the chances of Google successfully claiming the domain name are slim.

Jonathan Robinson, Chief Operating Officer of NetNames, which manages the domain name portfolios for a third of the FTSE 100 companies comments, “One of the first steps of launching any new product or service is checking the availability not only of your desired domain name, but also of alternatives including country-specific domain names before investing millions in marketing. The dispute between Google and Giersch Mail is a classic case of David versus Goliath where both companies have a legitimate claim to the gmail.de domain name, but Girsch Mail prevails as it was first to register the lucrative web address."

Robinson continues, “Prevention is better than cure and major brands such as Google have unfortunately found out the hard way that retrieving a domain name is much more difficult and costly than securing it in the first place, particularly in countries where cybersquatting is not viewed in the same legal context as in the US."

In the US a federal law known as the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act is in place to protect brands online. However in Europe and China, the laws are far less prescriptive making retrieval of lost domain names significantly more difficult.

About NetNames

NetNames is part of London listed Group NBT plc (LSE: NBT). Through its industry leading domain name management service, NetNames Platinum Service, the company is responsible for managing and protecting online brands for international corporates, including in excess of 30% of the FTSE 100.  The company provides domain names, website hosting and email services for a range of customers - from the home user up to enterprise level.  NetNames is an ICANN Accredited Registrar with the ability to register domain names in all available suffixes worldwide.  The company is headquartered in London, with offices in New York, Nice, Frankfurt and Madrid.  For further information, visit www.netnames.com

For further information please contact:
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Email: ivan.ristic@hotwirepr.com
 
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