Supreme Court Petition Says ‘Google’ Should be Generic Term

Two people who tried to register hundreds of domain names incorporating the word “google” want the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that Alphabet Inc.’s Google can no longer claim trademark ownership in the word (Elliott v. Google, Inc., U.S., 17-258, review sought 8/17/17).

David Elliott and Chris Gillespie argued, in a petition for review filed Aug. 14, that common use of “google” as a verb meaning to conduct an internet search should be considered when deciding whether the term is generic and not protectable as a trademark.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in June ...