"Scholar" in CHE

["James J. O'Donnell" <jod@georgetown.edu>]

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i49/49a02701.htm

> From the issue dated August 11, 2006
ONLINE
American Chemical Society Settles Trademark Suit Against Google

By JEFFREY R. YOUNG

The American Chemical Society has settled a lawsuit in which it
charged Google with trademark violation.

The suit, filed in December 2004, alleged that the Google Scholar
search engine violated a trademark the society claimed for its own
academic search engine, SciFinder Scholar. The settlement was reached
without fanfare, and the case was officially dismissed on July 5. Both
parties agreed not to discuss the details.

In the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia, the society argued that it held a "common law" trademark for
the term "scholar" because users often refer to the SciFinder Scholar
tool, which was started in 1998, as simply "Scholar."

"The ACS is actually pleased with the outcome," said Jane Shure, a
spokeswoman for the American Chemical Society. "The settlement
contains a confidentiality clause, and as such we will have no further
comment."

[SNIP]

copyright 2006 The Chronicle of higher Education