Leo Stoller Opposes "GOOGLE" Application on Multiple Grounds

Leo Stoller, through his company, Central Mfg. Co. (Inc.), has filed an opposition to Google Inc.'s application to register the mark GOOGLE for "toys and sporting equipment, namely plastic exercise balls." (Opposition No. 91170256). In its Notice of Opposition, Central alleges a gaggle of grounds for opposition, including likelihood of confusion, mere descriptiveness, genericness, and fraud. It also alleges that the GOOGLE mark "was not applied for according to its correct type," that Applicant mutilated its mark during the 2006 Winter Olympics (e.g., see below), and that Google was not the owner of the mark when the application was filed.


Central asserts that it "offers its GOOGLE mark to license on a wide variety of collateral merchandise" and engages in "an aggressive licensing program of the mark GOOGLE." Attached to Central's Notice of Opposition are copies of Mr. Stoller's correspondence with Google Inc. and its counsel, setting forth their diametrically opposing views of the matter.

Although Google Inc.'s application includes goods and services in 11 classes, Central's opposition is directed only to the class 28 goods.

TTABlog comment: How in the world is the word "google" generic for plastic exercise balls? BTW: I put the words "google exercise balls" into my favorite search engine and found this:

Google Headquarters

Text Copyright John L. Welch 2006.