If that's not bad enough, my lawyer's firm represents Google in Canada and can't help due to conflict of interest. Ugh.
Does anyone have experience with a great US trademark lawyer and/or experience fighting a trademark dispute?
BTW: We make website building tools for niche markets. Our main product (which we have a US trademark for) is Bandzoogle.com, a website builder for musicians. We changed the company name to Sitezoogle, because we added a bunch of new non-band markets.
Help is appreciated!
They can't really claim dibs on any name that happens to end in "oogle" and your firm does not seem to have anything to do with web search. Domino Sugar once tried to claim that Dominos Pizza was infringing on their name, a claim which they ultimately lost.
They've surely got the pockets to harass you and sadly you're going to need an attorney to respond to their complaint.
The "z" is a plural: "Sitez". Surely this meme, while old, can't be so old that only I remember it. Can it?
Meanwhile, let me introduce you to Google's website building business: http://sites.google.com
That's arguably in the same field of business -- enough to cause confusion in the marketplace, which is the legal standard -- and their URL is two characters away from the alleged infringing URL.
I guess this company could try to argue that Google is infringing their trademark... provided they launched before Google Sites, which came online under that name in 2008. Except, oops, the opponent is Google, a company whose legal team's lunch budget could probably buy and sell us all.
Run away!
The very worst that can happen is that I lose a few thousand dollars defending their contest. It's not like they are going to back down at this point. The next thing they'll send is the domain dispute letter. If I lose, fine, I'll change the name. But just instantly giving in to the big "do no evil" bully seems a little premature.
Rather, they made up a fun name with a long-U and ending -gle sound. '-oo-' is fairly common for goofy/froopy/groovy/loony 'U' sounds, and '-gle' is the common playful way to spell its sound, as in giggle/wiggle/finagle/beagle.
Still, I think the little guys have got a tough case. '-oogle' was rare before Google, and 'sitezoogle' for website services sounds like a sites.google.com or some other Google-derivation. And, they probably did have 'Google' in mind when they chose both Bandzoogle and Sitezoogle. (Bandzoogle was probably a little safer as long as it wasn't a search-engine for finding bands.)
So they may not need a lawyer as much as a new name.
http://www.gawkwire.com/domains/google_loses_domain_name_tra...
In the end, unless you have a ton of money to throw down on a big-time lawyer and a lot of press coverage, I don't think your choice of attorneys is going to make or break your defense. Might be better to just go ahead and decide if your domain name is worth the money it'll take to defend it.
That said: I can only assume that you are standing so close to the problem that you can't appreciate the sheer scope of your legal peril. The odds that you have a case are not worth the legal fees to calculate. Lawyers' calculators are not optimized for small numbers. Save your money and change the name. Unless your promotional materials include a fleet of blimps.
If you do hire a trademark lawyer, your money would probably be better spent by having him or her help you with your next name. I'll do my part by suggesting a list of names you should avoid in the future:
Sitecrosoft
SighBM
Sicombinator
Sapple Computer
Siteman Sachs
Sintendo
Though it's a pity about the last one, which would be a great name for a site specializing in off-color Flash games.The lawsuit sounds pretty bogus based on what you've said. Surely Google can't be allowed to have exclusive use of "oogle" just because it sounds like part of their company name. That would be like Microsoft saying no one can have a company ending with "soft".
That said, I'd say this would be expensive and time consuming to fight. May not be worth the effort even though you may be in the right (ethically if not legally).
Is there any chance this could get you into the press? Small company being picked on by enormous corporation. Could be good for you.
delano (@solutious.com)
"Do Not Do Evil"
What kind of a rubbish is that