Google and its near unlimited bandwidth email service, Gmail suffered a crushing legal blow last week in a German court. The search giant lost its right to the trademark Gmail in Germany. A German company for the past six (6) years has operated a same-day postal service to complete with the national postal service called Gmail. Google’s email brand of mail delivery has been in existence since 2004, but not nearly as long as the German postal company since 2001.

Under Trademark law, the key element is first in time, first in right. Google simply was not fast enough to market with its name. They made the argument that the two (2) Gmail names were not confusingly similar, but the court would have none of that.