Google victorious in domain name disputes
Monday 6th April 2009
Google has emerged as the victor in a dispute over a pair of domain names at the World Intellectual Property Rights Organisation (Wipo).
The search engine - which holds some 60 per cent of the market share in worldwide searches, according to India's Economic Times - complained about the domain names 'mygooglemoney.com' and 'googlehrd.com' to the United Nations-run agency, stating both were in violation of Google's intellectual property rights.
Sole panellist Christian Schalk asserted that the two Indian entities that set up the names had registered them in "bad faith" and had used the trade name Google without any right - a move which he said was designed to confuse internet users.
TechCrunch reported last week that while the search engine has debuted its venture capital fund - known as Google Ventures - it does not own or operate the domain name 'googleventures.com'.
According to the blog, the current registered domain name, which was set up in 2004, is set to expire later this year.
Written by Debra Hastings-Henry