BMW could challenge Google’s choice to use the name “Alphabet” for its new holding company, which includes all the group’s divisions and effectively separates web search, YouTube, and other internet companies from research and investment divisions.

After the announcement of the establishment of Alphabet, the website of the well-known German company crashed due to the excess of contacts thinking they were accessing the address of Google’s new company. Why?

Perhaps not everyone knows that BMW has a subsidiary that deals with leasing services, operating in 18 countries worldwide, with a business volume of around 530,000 vehicles, whose name is precisely “Alphabet Fuhrparkmanagement.”

BMW stated that it was not informed before Google’s official announcement of its intention to name the company this way, nor did it receive an offer to purchase the internet domain, which, in any case, is not for sale.

To avoid being overloaded with users looking for the new site of Google’s company, BMW asked its lawyers to verify if there had been a violation of the “Alphabet” trademark by the tech giant.

Now we just have to wait for the response from the American administrative body responsible for issuing patents and registered trademarks, the United States Patent and Trademark Office. According to this same body, there are currently more than 100 registered trademarks containing the word “Alphabet” in the US. Therefore, to prove Google’s violation, BMW’s lawyers will have to demonstrate that the new company creates a risk of confusing the customers of the two brands.

At the moment, however, Google seems very calm about this situation: On the homepage of the Alphabet site, accessible through a temporary domain, a message from Larry Page (CEO) appeared, concluding with:

“Don’t worry, we’re still getting used to the name too!”