DEL MAR, Calif. - eMolecules announced today that, under pressure from industry giant Google, it is changing the name of its premiere chemistry search engine to http://www.emolecules.com/, and dropping the name "Chmoogle" in favor of "eMolecules."
Google has mounted an aggressive campaign to claim any trademark related to -oogle, including some unsuccessful high-profile skirmishes with Froogles and Booble. On May 23, 2006, eMolecules received notice that Google filed an opposition to the trademark application for "CHMOOGLE" at the US Trademark office, claiming it is "highly similar" to "GOOGLE" and is "likely to cause confusion." eMolecules had previously stated and substantiated that, because the search engine's content, functionality and audience are fundamentally different, confusion can never occur.
"It's not about right or wrong, it's who has the deeper pockets," said co-founder and CEO Klaus Gubernator. "Although we firmly believe we have a legitimate trademark, and our attorneys advise us our case is solid, we do not want to waste valuable time and resources in a protracted legal battle. We would rather advance the cause of chemistry on the internet, an area that thus far is neglected completely by the dominant web search engines."
"We're excited about our upcoming database expansion, which includes millions of molecules from more than fifteen million sources," said Craig James, co-founder and CTO of eMolecules. "We're scientists and engineers, and can't be distracted by Google's strange legal theories that seem to be in conflict with the U.S. Supreme Court and with Google's own public pronouncements. If Google wants to try cheminformatics, that's a battle we would welcome."
eMolecules, Inc. has created the world's leading free open-access chemistry search engine. The company's mission is to discover, curate and index all of the public chemical information in the world, and make it available to all scientists. eMolecules distinguishes itself by extremely fast searches, an appealing presentation of results, and high-quality chemical drawings. Founded in 2005 and located in San Diego County, with offices in London, it has rapidly become the world's most popular public chemistry search engine.
For additional information, contact: Klaus Gubernator, CEO, eMolecules, Inc. info@emolecules.com or visit http://www.emolecules.com/