Dictionary adds Google, firm frets about brand

SAN FRANCISCO -- ``Google," a term synonymous with searching the Internet, will be included in the next edition of the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

Google, a trademark of Mountain View, Calif.-based Google Inc., means ``to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web," Merriam-Webster Inc. said in a statement.

Google and Googling will be included in the 11th edition of the ``Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary" to be published this year.

Its inclusion highlights the challenge Google faces in preventing its brand name from becoming so commonly used that it loses trademark status and protection. Google joins Xerox Corp. and Coca-Cola Co. in facing such challenges.

``There is a risk that the word `Google' could become so commonly used that it becomes synonymous with the word `search,' " Google noted in its annual report from last year. ``We could lose protection for this trademark, which could result in other people using the word `Google' to refer to their own products."

The Collegiate dictionary is a standard reference work found in schools and libraries.

The inclusion of Google in the dictionary probably won't create problems for the company because the definition refers specifically to Google rather than searching the Internet in general, said Mark Lemley, a legal professor at Stanford University in California.