Internet giant Google sues Streatham minicab firm and wins £10k trademark lawsuit

BY JAMES TWOMEY
james@slpmedia.co.uk

A minicab firm owner who is being forced to pay Google £10,000 for copying its brand has said he doesn’t know how he will pay the debt.

Sohail Nagi runs Goooglie Cars, in Streatham High Street and has been told by a High Court judge that he was “unfairly free-riding” on the image of search engine giant Google.

Mr Nagi was given 28 days to pay the fee on November 11 but said he does not know how he will pay it.

“We don’t have any choice,” said Mr Nagi. “Of course we don’t have the money for this. I don’t know what to do. Business is slow.

Uber means that we have more competition and are not getting as many customers as we used to.

“I can do hard work. We work hard but there is not enough business.
“I don’t know what to do. Maybe killing myself – because we can’t get the money. I’m a very poor man and it’s very hard to survive.”

The dispute began in 2012 when Google sent Mr Nagi a letter for “mimicking” their branding as the cab firm at the time was called ‘Gooogle Cars’ and used the same font and colour scheme as the £260billion company.

Mr Nagi decided earlier this year to change the o’s into cricket balls and added an i as a reference to a ‘googly’, a cricket bowling technique.

But the High Court said it was too late and handed down the fine which could see Mr Nagi lose his home in Mitcham if he does not manage to pay it on time.

Google were praised for capping their legal costs at £10,000, by the High Court judge, Gordon Nurse, who said it was “very generous”.

But the judge did not go as far as Google wanted and said the cab firm did not have to change its name because its new cricket-style logo is “extremely difficult to associate with Google, the mighty tech company”.