谷歌新名尴尬，Alphabet牵出众多重名公司

JACK EWING, QUENTIN HARDY 2015年8月13日

Alphabet.com的截图。该公司是宝马的子公司。

人们只能猜想，在拉里·佩奇(Larry Page)和谢尔盖·布林(Sergey Brin)选择把新成立的控股公司叫“字母表”(Alphabet)之前，两人在谷歌(Google)上进行过搜索。

如果这么做了，他们就会发现，alphabet.com这个域名和Alphabet这个商标已是名花有主，属于德国汽车制造商宝马(BMW)。而且如果给宝马位于慕尼黑的总部打过电话，他们又会发现另一件事：宝马不想出售相关域名和商标。

Alphabet是谷歌创始人佩奇和布林给新成立的母公司起的名字。该实体将囊括谷歌的搜索业务和几家较小的实体，比如智能温控器生产商Nest，以及专注于让人类长寿的Calico。

这个名字不仅和宝马有冲突。在华尔街，有个“字母表基金”(Alphabet Funds)。还有很多中小规模的公司也叫“字母表”：加利福尼亚州海沃德的字母表能源(Alphabet Energy)、德克萨斯州奥斯汀的字母表唱片公司(Alphabet Record Company)、亚利桑那州普雷斯科特的字母表管道(Alphabet Plumbing)。此外，无数家幼儿园、旅店和餐馆也采用了类似的名字。

在很多人看来，此事有违谷歌的气质，让人觉得有趣和好奇。“真的很荣幸，”伦敦一家从事招聘和外包业务的小公司的秘书史蒂夫·洛克伍德(Steve Lockwood)说。这家公司也叫“字母表”(Alphabet)。“我们恐怕不会考虑就此事起诉他们，但如果他们愿意大方出价，购买我们的域名，我们肯定会考虑的。”

其他一些人则对谷歌启用Alphabet这个名称感到不满。“我们的所有业务都是在线进行的，谷歌真的会影响到我们，”珍妮弗·布莱克利(Jennifer Blakeley)说。2008年，她注册了一家名为字母表摄影(Alphabet Photography)的在线零售店，把看上去像字母的建筑物或自然结构的照片冲印出来销售。

但采取法律行动似乎不容易。“谁会起诉谷歌？”身在安大略省尼亚加拉瀑布城的布莱克利说。

在宝马，“字母表”是一家为企业提供车队服务的子公司的名称。宝马的一名女发言人在周二表示，在佩奇和布林计划成立一家叫Alphabet的公司之前，没人告知宝马，宝马也未收到购买该域名或商标的任何报价。

“我们不打算出售该域名，”宝马女发言人米卡埃拉·桑德施特德(Micaela Sandstede)在慕尼黑说。她表示，在字母表公司的业务中，网站是一个“非常活跃”的组成部分。

桑德施特德说，宝马正在检查是否有商标侵权行为发生。

位于纽约的字母表基金旗下有多支对冲基金。其创始人兼首席执行官贾森·阿德勒(Jason Adler)尝试过购买alphabet.com这个域名，但未能如愿。字母表基金是阿德勒在2007年成立的。如今，该公司有三支对冲基金，并且正在筹集首支风投基金。谷歌决定也叫字母表这件事，令该公司措手不及。

“所有的投资者和朋友们都对我狂轰滥炸，”他说。“他们所有人都给我发邮件，每个人说的都是同一件事：谷歌抢了你公司的名字。”

一家公司用了某个名字，不代表其他公司不能再用那个名字。按照美国专利商标局(United States Patent and Trademark Office)的规定，只有其他企业使用那个名字，可能给消费者造成混淆，才构成商标侵权。

谷歌已经成为汽车行业的一员。它提供车载版Android操作系统，并且已对自动驾驶车辆进行了大量研究。

可能是因为谷歌周一宣布Alphabet这个名称激起了兴趣，周二当天，宝马那家子公司的网站alphabet.com似乎不堪重负宕机了。

谷歌周二拒绝置评。但Alphabet这家位于硅谷的实体已经有自己的网站了，用的域名是abc.xyz。

“别担心，”佩奇在首页上写道。“我们也还在适应这个名字。”

Conor Dougherty对本文有报道贡献。

翻译：陈亦亭

Google Creates Alphabet, but Runs Into BMW and Many Others

By JACK EWING and QUENTIN HARDY August 13, 2015

One can only assume that before Larry Page and Sergey Brin chose Alphabet as the name for their new holding company, they Googled it.

If so, they would have discovered that the Internet domain alphabet.com, as well as the trademark Alphabet, already belonged to someone else — the German automaker BMW. And if they had dialed BMW headquarters in Munich, they would have discovered something else: BMW does not want to sell.

Alphabet is the name that Mr. Page and Mr. Brin, Google’s founders, have given the newly created parent entity that will house the Google search business and several smaller holdings like Nest, a maker of smart thermostats, and Calico, a company focused on longevity.

The name isn’t just causing waves with BMW. On Wall Street, there is an Alphabet Funds. Lots of midsize and small companies also use the name Alphabet. There is an Alphabet Energy in Hayward, Calif.; an Alphabet Record Company in Austin, Tex.; an Alphabet Plumbing in Prescott, Ariz.; and numerous preschools, inns and restaurants with some variation of the name.

For many, the brush with Google’s aura is an interesting curiosity. “It’s quite flattering really,” said Steve Lockwood, the company secretary of Alphabet, a small recruitment and outsourcing firm in London. “We probably won’t put it on the agenda to sue them over it, but if they want to make us a very generous offer for our domain names, we’ll certainly consider it.”

Others had a problem with Google showing up as Alphabet. “We do all of our business online, and Google could really affect us,” said Jennifer Blakeley, who in 2008 registered Alphabet Photography as an online retail store selling printed photos of buildings and natural formations that look like letters.

Yet legal action seems difficult. “Who sues Google?” said Ms. Blakeley, who is based in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

At BMW, Alphabet is the name of a subsidiary that provides services to corporations with vehicle fleets. A BMW spokeswoman said Tuesday that the automaker was not informed ahead of time of plans by Mr. Page and Mr. Brin to create a company called Alphabet and had not received any offers to buy the Internet domain or the trademark.

“We are not planning to sell the domain,” said Micaela Sandstede, a BMW spokeswoman in Munich. She described the website as a “very active” part of Alphabet’s business.

BMW is examining whether any trademark infringement has taken place, Ms. Sandstede said.

Jason Adler, founder and chief executive of Alphabet Funds, a group of hedge funds in New York, already tried to buy alphabet.com, but was unsuccessful. Mr. Adler founded Alphabet in 2007, and today it includes three hedge funds and is raising its first venture capital fund. The company was caught off guard when Google decided it also wanted to be called Alphabet.

“I’m getting blown up from all my investors and my friends,” he said. “They are sending me emails, all of them, and every one of them says the same thing: ‘Google took your name.’ ”

Just because one company uses a name does not mean another company cannot use it. Trademark infringement occurs if another company’s use could create confusion with consumers, according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Google is involved in the auto industry. It offers a version of the Android operating system for use in cars and has done extensive research on self-driving vehicles.

Possibly because of interest generated by Google’s announcement of Alphabet on Monday, the alphabet.com website used by the BMW subsidiary appeared to be overloaded on Tuesday.

Google declined to comment on Tuesday. But Alphabet — the Silicon Valley entity — already has its own website using the domain name abc.xyz.

“Don’t worry,” Mr. Page wrote on that home page. “We’re still getting used to the name too!”

Conor Dougherty contributed reporting.