Hamburg entrepreneur Daniel Giersch has won a legal dispute with Google concerning the ”gmail.de” domain name and brand. Giersch has owned the domain since 2000, which predates Google’s Gmail brand. Google’s freemail service has been called Googlemail in Germany for a long time, because they have not been allowed to use the “Gmail” name. Giersch operates an email and postal mail service under gmail.de and he also owns the trademark for “Gmail” in Germany.

Google wants to use this domain for their own German email service, but I guess Google will now have to make a very high offer for this domain name if they want to become its new owner, because Daniel Giersch does not really want to sell it:

“I have made it clear since the beginning that I will never sell the name. It is my sole intention to realise my idea for a hybrid mail system. I am absolutely convinced of its success. Neither “G-mail” nor myself are for sale.”