American Chemical Society sues Google over the use of the word "scholar"
(Via Chemical & Engineering News) There has been quite a lot of discussion about this on the CHMINF-L listserv.
The American Chemical Society filed a complaint on Dec. 9 against Google Inc. in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The complaint contends that Google's use of the trademark "Scholar" for its Google Scholar literature-search engine constitutes trademark infringement and unfair competition. ...
The ACS complaint contends that Google's use of the word scholar infringes on ACS's SciFinder Scholar and Scholar trademarks and constitutes unfair competition. SciFinder Scholar, a desktop research tool designed for academic scientists, was launched six years ago. ACS's Chemical Abstracts Service estimates that about 1,000 colleges and universities have bought the service, which provides access to all of CAS's databases, including information on journal and patent references, substance information, regulated chemicals, chemical reactions, and chemical supplier information.
Addendum: Judith Currano wrote in CHMINF-L
I did a search on the USPTO site of trademarks with the word "scholar" in the title and "database" somewhere in the description of goods & services. I found five results, one of which was Med Scholar Digital Networks, previously Med Scholar, which even uses a mortarboard in their logo. Med Scholar described themselves as, "online computer databases and online computer information services in the fields of health, medical care, and professional medical evaluation..." ... The trademark was registered on May 25, 1999. SciFinder Scholar was registered on May 6, 2003. I think that the fact that both trademarks were accepted and registered implies that the USPTO found that they were different enough to be separate entities, neither infringing on the rights of the other. Indeed, the typeface and the use of the mortarboard are completely distinct in each example.
As an aside, I thought that the "Scholar" bit of SciFinder Scholar's name was just something tacked onto the product name, "SciFinder," to distinguish the academic version from its pricier commercial counterpart.
Posted by Tom on December 13, 2004
