After the much awaited decision by the UK courts, Google has lost rights to using gmail.com in the UK. Starting today, residents from the UK can no longer register for a gamil.com account — instead they will be using googlemail.com. Pretty long, huh?
Google explains this change on their website:
We have been involved in a dispute regarding the Gmail trademark in the UK. Another company has claimed rights to the Gmail name. We have tried to resolve this dispute through negotiations, but our efforts have failed.
We are still working with the courts and trademark office to protect our ability to use the Gmail name, but in the meantime, we want you to have an email address you can rely on.
The Gmail Team is dedicated to offering the best email service to our users. Our email service stays the same no matter what the logo is or what follows the @ symbol. This change lets our team focus their time on continuing to bring you excellent service.
Those living in the UK but already has a gmail.com account still has an uncertain faith as to their email accounts.
Google adds “Unfortunately, we don’t know. We would love to say that your address will always remain the same. But the trademark issue is still unsettled, and unfortunately, we cannot predict what the other party or the courts might do here. You can always use your same username with an @googlemail.com address to avoid this issue later on. But trust that we will do the best we can to make sure your email address won’t ever have to change.”
Not much of a news for us outside of the UK but I figure people will find ways around this somehow. How about asking their friends outisde the UK to create a GMail account for then and they use it inside UK? What if you live in the US with a Gmail account and had a month long vacation somewhere in the UK? Will you still be able to use your GMail account?
