Google: Risk losing our Trademark
By Shalini Singh

Google is the dominant search engine in the world and has 70%of the Indian market.  It has cash reserves of $25 Billion.  Like all American companies, it can count on the Government’s backing to protect its copyrights and Trademark. Google gets 53 percent of its total revenues from outside USA. But it seems that Google fears it may lose its Trademark. 

In a 10-K filing with the SEC, USA on Feb 13, 2010, Google gives a brief snapshot of the company and lists possible threats that may affect its brand value

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Our intellectual property rights are valuable, and any inability to protect them could reduce the value of our products, services, and brand.

Our patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights, and other intellectual property rights are important assets for us. Various events outside of our control pose a threat to our intellectual property rights as well as to our products and services. For example, effective intellectual property protection may not be available in every country in which our products and services are distributed or made available through the internet. Also, the efforts we have taken to protect our proprietary rights may not be sufficient or effective. Any significant impairment of our intellectual property rights could harm our business or

We also face risks associated with our trademarks. For example, there is a risk that the word “Google” could become so commonly used that it becomes synonymous with the word “search.” If this happens, we could lose protection for this trademark, which could result in other people using the word “Google” to refer to their own products, thus diminishing our brand.
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Is this just a case of over cautious lawyers covering all bases?  Or can Google actually lose its Trademark?