Daily Domainer

Google has launched legal action against the Polish Grupa Młodych Artystów i Literatów (GMAil), or Group of Young Artists and Writers, over the domain name gmail.pl which the group had registered on November 1, 2006.

Izabela Krawczyk of GMAiL told news agency Agence France-Presse that Google had turned to Poland's IT and telecommunications tribunal to try to stop them using the domain name gmail.pl. Google charges that GMAiL has no rights to the name, which resembles Google's internationally known email service gmail.com.

GMAiL denied suggestions that the poets were looking for a fast buck:

We didn't buy this name just to sell it to Google. As a matter of pride, we're refusing to give it up. We bought the name legally, with our own money. Nobody gave it to us for free. We refuse to be deprived of what we consider is our property.

If gmail.pl was still available in November 2006, Google must have been sleeping. They failed to spend $10 for a domain name so they must now spend thousands of dollars in legal expenses, and millions more in loss of brand equity due to their heavy-handed legal tactics.

The role of hard-fisted bully - the type that goes after poets - was formerly filled by the company that everyone loved to hate: Microsoft. Is Google the new Microsoft? The blogosphere is filled with condemnation of Google's actions:

• Profy: Polish Poets Threaten Google Supremacy!
• Andy Beard: Polish Gmail vs Google Gmail - The Poets vs The Court Jester
• ZDNet: Google’s big European hypocricy
• Joe Duck: Polish Poets to Google: A domain by any other name won’t smell … as sweet. (includes poem!)
• Guardian: Polish poets threaten Google's supremacy
• Tech Dudes: Google sues Polish poets over gmail.pl

Needless to say, one can only wonder what other gmail-related country domains are still available.