Google readies for action against Dutch smut site

We're not googling, we're ogling

By Jan Libbenga • Get more from this author

Posted in Law, 1st May 2008 06:02 GMT

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Google is girding its loins for action against Pornoogle.nl, a Dutch site which indexes 26,000 movies from 11 Dutch online porn companies and shows previews.

Site owner Ruben Doctor has several porn sites under different names. He claims name Pornoogle actually means porn ogle (to stare at porn) and is "just a joke".

Jeroen Schouten, legal counsel to Google Netherlands, told Dutch newsite Webwereld that the combination of the name Google, porn, and search machine is intolerable.

"I haven't heard from Google yet," Doctor told Dutch site Z24. "I think it is a little strange if they pick on me, because there are also other sites that use that particular name, including Pornoogle.com, none of which I own."

Domain-name squatters usually register related domain names in the hope that either the company in question will buy them back or another speculator will buy them at a higher price.

Last year, a German IT specialist offered several domain names including docsgoogle.de and labsgoogle.de in exchange for a job at Google in California.

In January, the Dutch owner of Googles.nl received a cease and desist letter from Google, but was allowed to keep the name after he changed the logo on his site.

In a case before the Arbitration Centre for .EU Disputes, Google last year failed to gain control of the disputed domain name Googles.eu.

And, in 2004, Google also lost its case against children's site Googles.com. Its owner acquired the rights to market the so-called "Googles from Goo" alien characters in 2002 from their original creator, who trademarked the name in 1997.

In related news, last week, Microsoft filed a lawsuit against a 46-year-old Dutch mother who wanted to restrict her children's use of the internet and developed a programme called MSNLock. Microsoft claimed "violation of intellectual property rights in using our MSN brand" and has demanded all domain names related to MSNLock. ®

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