We concluded we were not going to be able to get through
to a human decision maker without spending a bucket load
of money on lawyers
Google is not a court. If you want to argue about whether somebody's trademark is or isn't being infringed on, you'll need to take them to court. Barring that, current IP law requires companies to take a maximalist enforcement position like Google has here, or face liability for infringement themselves.
If this name was that critical to your business, consider why you hadn't sought trademark protection.
