An Australian online start-up called Groggle has received a legal letter from Google’s lawyers requesting it cease trading and hand over its domain name groggle.com
Groggle received the legal letter from Google’s Australian lawyer on Thursday last week requesting the company cease trading under the name Groggle Pty Ltd and handover the domain name it had registered.
Groggle was intended to be a ‘location-based liquor price comparison’ website search service allowing consumers to find the cheapest liquor price in a particular area.
“Essentially, you look for a particular product, you type in your postcode and it directs you to the retailer with the cheapest price near you,” Brisbane-based founder Cameron Collie told ZDNet Australia. The site is currently in beta mode and was to launch in the coming month.
Cameron Collie and his business partner Alec Doughty have been working on the project for a number of months and registered “Groggle” with the Australian trademark office IP Australia on 28 September last year. IP Australia approved the trademark filing on 4 February this year. Since that date there has been a 90-day period of time for opposition of the application, which ends Tuesday this week.
Google has requested the start-up withdraw its trademark application and change its name. The search giant also requested that Groggle transfer its domain name groggle.com.au to Google, provide a written acknowledgement that it infringed on Google’s trademark, that it contravened the Trade Practices Act, that it committed the tort of passing off, and that the start-up will not use the word “Groggle” in the future.
Source: www.zdnet.com