Google marked by Chinese company for trademark violation

A Beijing company has taken Google's Chinese division to court over the search company's Mandarin name.

Google's name translates to "Guge" (goo-guh) in Chinese, which loosely means "Valley's Song." It was decided upon by Google's CEO Eric Schmidt from a list of 1,800 alternate choices, and announced on April 12, 2006.

Guge Sci-Tech Co. was officially registered with the Beijing Municipal Industrial and Commercial Bureau only a week later, on April 19, 2006. Google did not register its new name until November 24 of that year.

The renaming caused quite an uproar, and opponents of the name actually started an online petition that reportedly received over 10,000 signatures, deeming the new name "unpleasant."

Shanghai Daily reported that Chinese users and analysts alike rebuked Google's choice, suggesting that it reflected the company's ignorance of Chinese culture.

Guge Sci-Tech claims that Google's name has caused confusion which ultimately hurt its business, the Associated Press reported. Guge wants Google to change its name and pay an undisclosed sum to cover legal costs.

Though the nature of the Beijing company's name is suspicious at best, they say Google's choice of name was simply a coincidence.

One reason the search provider chose to rename itself in China because "goo-gull" translates to "old dog" in Chinese, an echo of the unauthenticated tale of Coca-Cola's name trouble in China in the late 1920's.