Google loses fight over domain name

Google has lost an arbitration with a small Canadian start-up involving the domain name Groovle.com.

Young entrepreneurs Jacob Fuller and Ryan Fitzgibbon launched the Groovle.com web site in 2007 - letting users skin Google with a preferred image and serving up search results through Google's Custom Search.

Google however was not amused and complained to the National Arbitration Forum, a service accredited by ICANN that resolves domain name disputes worldwide, that Groovle.com was "confusingly similar" to its own trademark.

The Forum has dismissed Google's complaint after a three person panel ruled in favour of Groovle.

"We were stunned when Google launched the domain name dispute as we have great respect for Google and have always had a good relationship with them," said Ryan Fitzgibbon. Jacob Fuller added that, "Google never had anything to fear from our web site. The arbitrators' decision that the two domain names are sufficiently different should put Google at ease and we look forward to a renewed positive relationship with Google."

Groovle was successfully defended by internet law expert, Zak Muscovitch, who declared in an official statement that: "Google clearly miscalculated here..."

Google has, till date, commenced 65 domain name disputes and this is only the second time that it has ever lost.