German courts have ruled that the original owner of the gmail.de domain name, a Mr Daniel Giersch, may keep his Domain Name, despite pressure from Google to give it up. The German entrepreneur also owns the "Gmail" trademark in Germany, and runs physical and electronic mail services whose activity predates the advent of Google's email service.

The dispute is in its third year, and the story isn't over: the case continues in China, Poland, Norway, Monaco and Spain, whilst Austrian and Swiss courts have already ruled in favour of Giersch. Google continues to offer their email service in Germany, under the name "Google Mail".