Google may face Gmail dispute in China

SHANGHAI -- Google Inc., fighting to consolidate its trademark globally, faces an obstacle in the world's second-largest Web market: China's Gmail.cn is refusing to sell its Internet address to the US giant.

A legal source told Reuters that Google was trying to buy the Internet domain name, held by Beijing-based ISM Technologies.

It resembles Google's internationally known e-mail service, gmail.com, and the colors in which the two logos are written are similar. The ".cn" suffix is commonly used for Chinese domain names.

Google recently began offering free Gmail accounts in China to promote its brand.

"Google has contacted Gmail.cn about the Web address and logo issue, but there is no progress so far," said a legal source in Shanghai familiar with the situation.

ISM, which on its website, ism.net.cn, says it's the largest wholesale Internet domain registrar accredited with Chinese government-backed Internet body CNNIC, refuses to sell, but there is no sign yet that Google will sue, the source added.

Google's China spokeswoman did not answer repeated calls. A spokesman for Gmail.cn could not be contacted.

Google is already embroiled in legal action against a group of Polish poets to stop them from using the Web address gmail.pl, European news reports have said. The company also this week reportedly lost an attempt to gain sole control over the Gmail trademark in Switzerland.

But the Gmail.cn case may prove more complicated, given that intellectual property issues in China can become complicated by politics, the source added, especially between US and Chinese firms.

"It's unlike the Polish case. The Chinese company is also an Internet service provider which provides mail services, and Gmail can literally just be referring to a 1G mailbox or something like that," said the source, referring to the 1 gigabyte-sized mailbox.

Google already owns the Chinese Web addresses google.com.cn and google.cn, aimed at the world's second-largest Internet market after the United States, with around 137 million Web users.

Google is fighting to narrow the gap between its market share of around 17 percent in China and market leader Baidu.com's share of around 58 percent.

And Google's trademark worries may not end with China.

A search on several domain registration websites showed that variations on "gmail" were still available for purchase and gmail.de called up a website for a German courier service.