Verbing Weirds Google 856
MoNickels writes "Back in January, the American Dialect Society voted the neologism "to google" as the most useful word of 2002. Now bring on the lawyers! Google's have sent a cease-and-desist letter to Paul McFedries, creator of the famous Word Spy site, demanding he remove google as a verb from his lexicon, or else. Frank Abate, an American editor for the Oxford English Dictionary, points out, however, that you can't claim proprietary rights to a verb." Update: 02/26 03:19 GMT by T : MoNickels writes with an update: "Frank Abate is not
an editor of the OED, but he is a former editor of the New Oxford
American Dictionary, both published by Oxford University Press." Thanks for the amendment!
Re:Isn't google a number? (Score:5, Informative)
To Google, To Xerox... (Score:2, Informative)
What they're scared of... (Score:4, Informative)
Google is just fine with Josh on The West Wing telling Donna to "go Google it", but they're terrified once it goes into print.
What I wonder is this - did Google ever just ask the site to take it down nicely? Did they just go straight to the cease-and-desist order? And if they did, is this for some indisputable legal "we'll look like dicks, but..." reason? I'd hate to see a chink in the "we're all for them" online armor they have right now.
"Verbing weirds Google?" (Trivia!) (Score:2, Informative)
Hmm. Just curious.
**Admits to being a total C&H fanatic**
-- n
The English Language has nouns as well! (Score:2, Informative)
1. The English language has a verb, google. It is new, but it is in widespread use, and this can be documented.
The English language has a noun, google, as well. It means 10^100, and has been around longer than Google (the trademark). I wonder if they want to have this use removed from the dictionary as well?
Seriously though, what is their problem? Every time someonw says 'to google' instead of 'to search' it is re-enforcing the idea that using Google is the same as searching, and this is the very best for of viral marketing they can have. Imagine if Hoover objected to people referring to operating a vacuum cleaner as 'hoovering'.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Its not a Cease and Desist! (Score:5, Informative)
This is just a "request" from a lawyer:
"....We ask that you help us to protect our brand by deleting the definition of
"google" found at wordspy.com or revising it to take into account the
trademark status of Google."
Lawyers do this all time. You have the option of saying "No".
It is NOT a Cease and Desist letter.
thanks Timothy for more FUD.
Spam vs spam, and Google vs google (Score:5, Informative)
used as verb in _Pattern_Recognition_ (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What they're scared of... (Score:4, Informative)
Redifference between uppercase and lowercase (Score:5, Informative)
"Google" might be a trademark, but "google" isn't. A good example is "Ford" - the motor company, versus "ford" - a shallow place in a body of water that can be crossed (forded) easily :-)
and his already done it... so... bfd (Score:3, Informative)
google
(GOO.gul) v. To use an Internet search engine such as google.com to look for information related to a new or potential girlfriend or boyfriend. (Note that Google(TM) is a trademark of Google Technologies Inc.)
--Googling pp.
Cease? Desist? (Score:3, Informative)
I can't believe this is being called a "cease and desist" letter. What is the deal with this bottom-sucking sensationalism? The letter simply said, look, that's our trademark, and we want you to either reference it adequately or remove it. It's since been referenced. Now, if Google doesn't think it's been referenced adequately enough, you might expect a second letter, which, if not followed up properly, might turn into a future cease and desist letter... but geez, this one was hardly threatening, and, as far as I know about copyright law, it was well within Google's rights to request that he reference their trademark.
I suppose it's too much to ask for the submissions to not always have the aura of inane paranoia...
B
Re:On ER... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:On ER... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:ok, so he removes it from his lexicon so what? (Score:5, Informative)
Naturally, the submitter above chose to ignore that and focus on the "please remove" part of the letter.
They better sue Gibson, too (Score:2, Informative)
Gotta go now, gotta get a klenex.
Re:never work (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Redifference between uppercase and lowercase (Score:3, Informative)
Typical Slashdot beat-up (Score:4, Informative)
The letter is a polite request - not a 'cease-and-desist'. All that they ask is that the dictionary entry acknowledge their trademark:
We ask that you help us to protect our brand by deleting the definition of "google" found at wordspy.com or revising it to take into account the trademark status of Google
Do they have the right to demand this? According to one of the links in the story, probably not. It is polite and sensible for Word Spy to do this? Yes. Have they done this? Yes:
(GOO.gul) v. To use an Internet search engine such as google.com to look for information related to a new or potential girlfriend or boyfriend. (Note that Google(TM) is a trademark of Google Technologies Inc.)
Google doesn't have a choice (Score:5, Informative)
The problem is that if Google doesn't actively protect their mark and it becomes a word on it's own, then in effect the word "Google" just describes "Google" because it is a word with it's own meaning, refering to a type of search engine. Then they lose the ability to renew their trademark and prevent others from using it.
So then I would be able to create www.googleit.com or www.gogoogle.com. That wouldn't be very good for their business.
From Google.com (Score:4, Informative)
Google is a play on the word "googol", which was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, to refer to the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros. A googol is a very large number. There isn't a googol of anything in the universe. Not stars, not dust particles, not atoms. Google's use of the term reflects the company's mission to organize the immense, seemingly infinite, amount of information available on the web.
(from Google's Corporate History [google.ca])
Re:Google doesn't have a choice (Score:0, Informative)
Re:Redifference between uppercase and lowercase (Score:5, Informative)
It contained clear directions for the guy how he could resolve the matter:
"We ask that you help us to protect our brand by deleting the definition of "google" found at wordspy.com or revising it to take into account the trademark status of Google." (emphasize mine).
They sent him the letter, but they gave him free legal advice at how to avoid any problems, and following this advise can't hurt him in any way and does't cost anything.
Re:never work (Score:5, Informative)
When Apple first formed as such, they were involved in a trademark dispute with the British recording label Apple (the Beatles label, BTW). They settled because Apple Computer would be in a different business. (For more, search on 'Apple+sosumi'.) Furthermore, it has also been resolved that 'Apple' can not be used as a trademark when selling the actual fruit.
Google does NOT mean to search for something online. Check here [reference.com] or your closest paper dictionary. In the vernacular it has come to mean search in much the same way xerox has come to mean copy documents, kleenex has come to mean tissue, and scotch tape has come to mean transparent tape.
Ergo, if another internet search engine uses the term 'google' it would be as much as fault as a copier company advertising with the word 'xerox'. The fact that 'Word Spy' has noted that it is now in common use to mean search is irrelavent.
Updated definition - check site (Score:5, Informative)
(GOO.gul) v. To use an Internet search engine such as google.com to look for information related to a new or potential girlfriend or boyfriend. (Note that Google(TM) is a trademark of Google Technologies Inc.)
So he did what Google asked: noted that it was a trademark. The site's still up. The definition's still valid. Presumably the Google lawyers are happy. I don't feel my civil or lexical rights have been trounced upon.
As has often been said...move along folks, nothin' to see here.
Re:Google doesn't have a choice (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Redifference between uppercase and lowercase (Score:5, Informative)
Google isn't being unreasonable here. Look up 'kleenex' at dictionary.com and you get (trademark) added to it. Check it out:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=kleenex [reference.com]
I haven't skimmed the comments yet, but those of you who have your pitchforks raised can lower them.
Re:finally (Score:5, Informative)
ie:
a "coke" instead of a carbonated beverage
a "thermos" rather than a... err a thermal flask?
a "kleenex" instead of a paper tissue
On the otherhand... according to this [netpreneur.org] the quickest way to lose your copyright is to have your brand perceived as a generic term.
By the way, I found the above article by googli^U^U^U using the search engine Google [google.com]®.
You want to know why? (Score:5, Informative)
you want to know why the spam fills the can, and there is no "juice" that falls out when you open it?
because they cook it in the can.
the ingredients go in, they seal it, then they cook it.
mmm mmm good. D:
Re:Redifference between uppercase and lowercase (Score:2, Informative)
googly . Cricket. An off-break ball bowled with leg-break action. Hence google v. of the ball or bowler, googler .