On Monday, when Google announced that it would be changing its organization structure and the world famous Google Inc. would fall under a new holding company, Alphabet, the world literally turned over. However the new parent company might have got into bit of a trouble BMW.
Wait! What? Why would BMW have anything to do with Google creating Alphabet?
The answer is quite simple. While Google’s new parent entity, Alphabet is headed by Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin and will house the Google search business and several smaller holdings like Nest, a maker of smart thermostats, and Calico, a company focused on longevity, BMW already holds a subsidiary with the same name which provides services to corporations with vehicle fleets.
According to the automaker, BMW wasn’t informed about Google’s plans to create the entity with the same name as its subsidiary. Following this, BMW is now checking to see if there are any legal implications over their trademarks. Though the company has, as of yet, denied the fact that it will take any legal measures against the web giant anytime soon, there cannot be any guarantees when it comes down to patents infringements.
While it’s not against the law to take up a name that another company uses, trademark infringement occurs when another company’s use could create confusion with consumers, according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
As Google is also working on various projects related to the automobile sector, including the self-driving vehicles and the Android Auto service, these could surely brew up a little fire if any legal issues are found by the Germans.
Do note though, that since Google does not plan to do any business with the name ‘Alphabet’ and more through the subsidiaries, this might not really become that big an issue for . Also, Alphabet is a rather common name in a lot of American companies.
One thing is in Google’s favour though, the web giant’s new entity has opted for a very different web domain, abc.xyz, which shows that the folks at Alphabet aren’t planning to buy BMW’s Alphabet domain.
