The suit, filed in the Eastern District Court of New York on 7th April, seeks an injunction and the transfer of the domain.
The case dates back to 2000, when the Froogles.com domain name was registered by Richard Wolfe, a former carpenter, according to reports. Wolfe began to use the domain in July 2002, as an internet shopping site for the frugal shopper.
In December 2002, however, Google launched Froogle.com, a price engine web site, and filed an application for a US trade mark in the Froogle name shortly after. Wolfe, who applied for his own trade mark in September 2003, argued against the granting of Google's mark, but it was finally awarded in February last year.
Google then objected to Wolfe's use of the Froogles name, and in May last year took the matter to the dispute resolution arm of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body with responsibility for managing the internet's system of domain names.
In a majority ruling, the panel found that Google was not entitled to the transfer of the domain, explaining that there was unlikely to be confusion between "Froogles" and "Google".
Google has now taken the case to court, accusing Wolfe of registering the domain in the full knowledge of Google's rights in the Google name, and arguing that Google "is the senior user of marks that incorporate the formative "-oogle" for internet search services."
"Defendant is using the mark 'Froogles,' which is nearly identical to the famous mark 'Google' in an attempt to market internet search services which are identical and/or closely related to Google's search services," says the complaint.
