MINNEAPOLIS – A Canadian web startup won’t have to hand over one of its domain names after a U.S. arbiter decided against web giant Google’s claim that Groovle.com sounded too much like their own site.
Google Inc., California-based makers of the world’s leading search engine, submitted in November a complaint to the National Arbitration Forum, a company that has mediated more than 10,000 domain-name disputes, saying the name Groovle was "nearly identical or confusingly similar" to their own.
Among Google’s concerns was that Groovle, owned by 207 Media Inc., a marketing and web development startup from Oakville, Ont., had used a layout that looked like Google’s.
Google had asked that the Ontario company hand over rights to the domain name.
But the forum’s panel of three judges ruled on Christmas Eve that the name Groovle was closer to the words "groove" or "groovy" than it was to Google, and denied Google’s query.
Groovle.com, which uses a Google-powered search engine, advertises itself as a "groovy" way to customize one’s website.
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