The New York Times reports that
Google's new parent company, Alphabet, has encountered an issue with
german automaker BMW, which owns a fleet services company with the same
name and the domain Alphabet.com.
A spokesperson for BMW told the Times the company isn't planning on selling its domain and that Alphabet was a large part of its business.
With the major restructuring announcement yesterday, Alphabet launched abc.xyz as
its domain name. Alphabet, led by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey
Brin, is now the parent company of Google, a move designed to separate
the core products (search, Gmail, Android, etc.) from its more far
reaching projects (Fiber, Calico, X, self-driving cars).
BMW is looking into whether Google's Alphabet has infringed on its trademark, with no legal action currently planned.
Since the announcement, Alphabet.com has been down, likely due to the increased traffic it is undoubtedly receiving.
Other companies also have the Alphabet name. Reuters notes that more
than 100 companies have trademark registrations in the U.S. that
incorporate the word alphabet in some capacity. For example, Alphabet,
Inc. is an Ohio company founded in 1965 that manufactures electrical
components for the auto industry, according to Bloomberg.
Even the @Alphabet Twitter handle already has an owner. It belongs to a
man named Chris Andrikanich, who is probably receiving a bit more
attention than he's used to.