Trademark question: To Google or not to Google?

September 4, 2006

By: Douglas R. Wolf
Mass High Tech

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Right: "I ran a Google search to check out that guy from the party."

Wrong: "I googled that hottie."

Using these actual examples, Google Inc. made news when it confirmed that its lawyers had sent letters to the media telling them to not use "Google" as a verb. Naturally, it sounds pretty silly to most people.

Actually, there are real legal issues at stake, and this news item exposes some inherent contradictions between marketing success and trademark protection.