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IIIR's chief executive Shane Smith told Times Online, "We're unsure of which jurisdiction to persue the action in, although it will probably be in the United States, where our application predates Google's by a few days."

What are the legal obstacles to any challenge?

The prime legal obstacle will be that no one has been awarded a trademark either in the EC or in the US, although Mr Giersch does hold a Germany-only EC trademark.

The other obstacles will be the jurisdiction of the challenge and the likely consequences. If the action is persued within the US, the damages awarded to IIIR in the event of a victory would be greater, but so would the costs if they lose.

The real value of GMail is not the name as such but the domain name. IIIR confirmed to Times Online that they are not looking at pursuing any actions to be awarded the domain name. This is most likely due to the fact that Garfield first used the name in 1995 and it willingly sold the domain name to Google last year.

What are the chances of Google losing such a case?

It is unlikely that Google will lose the case as it stands because no one has been granted a trademark and the first use of the name "GMail" was by a party who sold their domain name to Google of their own accord.

However, if IIIR were to be awarded the trademark, which is a possibility either in the US or the EC, then their hopes of success will be much greater and Google will most likely settle out of court.

It is much more likely that IIIR would get granted a trademark restricted to financial services and Google to e-mail services, and as such both will be free to use the name and IIIR will be stuck with the confusion in the minds of their clients.

What about the other people using the GMail name?

With Contensis, who own gmail.co.uk, the story may be different.

Although their use predates Google's by more than two years, the dispute would be handled by Nominet, the UK's internet name authority which tends to side with the larger party. They also seem not to recognise prior use, at least that was my experience when they handed iTunes.co.uk to Apple from my company, despite us launching three years prior to Apple's product.

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