Google Claim Over Froogles Site Is Denied

A three-judge arbitration panel on Friday rejected Google Inc.’s challenge of a website named Froogles.com.

Two of the three judges on the panel of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, rejected Google’s argument that Froogles.com was “confusingly similar” to Google.

“The dissimilar letters in the domain name are sufficiently different to make it distinguishable from Google’s mark,” the panel found. The name Froogles.com “creates an entirely new word.”

The third judge on the ICANN panel dissented, saying the name Froogles.com could cause users to believe that the site is affiliated with Google.

The search-engine company currently operates a shopping site dubbed Froogle. The panel’s decision has no immediate impact on its use of the name.

But it means that the domain Froogles.com will remain with Richard Wolfe, a disabled carpenter in Holtsville, N.Y., who started a shopping site at that address in March 2001 -- well before Google introduced Froogle in December 2002.

In a separate proceeding in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Wolfe has challenged Google’s attempt to register Froogle as an infringement of his Froogles.com mark.

Google didn’t immediately return calls and an e-mail asking for comment.

Wolfe’s attorney, Stephen Humphrey, wouldn’t say what his client’s next step would be. “We have a lot of options right now,” he said.

Wolfe has said that he would consider settling the matter as his legal bills mount, but that his goal has always been to continue developing Froogles.com.

“It still amazes me that I should have to go through this at all,” Wolfe said. “I started my shopping service called Froogles almost two years before Google started a shopping service called Froogle. What more does anyone need to know?”

Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., has filed 18 domain name disputes at the ICANN panel, challenging names like “googlesex.com,” “google.biz” and “googleme.com.” Until now, it had won every challenge.