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How To Edit And Publish Your Blog Post On Blogger
Blogspot.com is the blogging service operated by blog search engine company Google, free of charge. Launched on October 7, 1999 under the domain nameblogspot.com, it is one of the oldest blog-hosting services on the World Wide Web still in operation as of 2019. It is estimated that there are more than 400 million blogs hosted on Blogger as of 2019. As a free site, Blogger's income depends on advertising revenue from both text and video ads placed on blogs and in 2009 it was estimated to make $75 million from this ad revenue.
In 1999, Blogger.com was launched by Vinod Khosla and Krishna Bharat, who received the first trademark registration for "Weblog", which Blogger later transferred to Google, Inc.
On February 26, 2006, the domain name blogspot.com became available for purchase, after it was transferred from Google Inc. to a privately held corporation called GSR, LLC (previously known as GBIS LLC), in a private transaction without public announcement or fanfare. On March 2, 2006, the domain name blogspot.com was registered to GSR by Blogger, Inc. (blogger.com), apparently as part of an agreement reached in the preceding month between GSR and Google, Inc., as a buyer interested in buying the domain name from Google. On March 23, 2006, Blogger.com with the domain name blogspot.com became available for public purchase via purchase agreements that were being made available for download by Google users who had registered to log into their accounts before February 26, 2006 and had not yet logged into their accounts after February 26, 2006 at their own choice and without any need to renew or reapply for registration on Blogger's website.
On March 24, 2006, GSR made the domain name blogspot.com available for purchase by the public via an HTTP URL at blogspot.com. This URL pointed to a page on Blogger's website with a message notifying registered Google users that they could buy the domain name blogspot.com as well as multiple other domain names formerly held by Google, Inc., which had been transferred to GSR in a transaction that had been kept confidential from the public until March 24, 2006.
On April 17, 2006, Blogger, Inc. assigned the rights to sell blogspot.com to GSR for $100,000 and then withdrew from the transaction and disclaimed any interest in the transfer of blogspot.com it had entered into with GSR.
On June 27, 2006, GSR moved to assume the rights of the buyer in Blogger Inc's $100K domain name sale contract to purchase blogspot.com and disclaimed all interest in the transaction it had made with Blogger, Inc. On September 18, 2006, GSR transferred the domain name blogspot.com to Blogger, Inc. On September 20, 2006, Blogger, Inc. registered blogspot.com on Blogger's website for $100K in consideration for the transfer of its rights under the domain name sale contract to GSR.
In February 2013, Google created a trademark dispute with the company Grokster Technologies regarding the term "blog". Google had applied to register the trademark "blog" in 2005 and Grokster had opposed it. On March 16, 2013, Google announced that it would be abandoning its trademark application for "blog".
On December 24, 2013, a ruling was made against Google for illegally utilizing the word "Blog" as a trademark. After this ruling was made the general public began receiving DMCA notices on several websites including Wikipedia's blog. In March 2015, the company spoke out against their own ruling by stating that infringing parties have properly used their trademarks in their product names and have been granted rights to use them as long as they remain truthful to the product they are selling and are not misleading to customers.
On March 4, 2013, the domain name blogspot.com became available for purchase, after it was transferred from Google Inc. to a privately held corporation called GSR, LLC (previously known as GBIS LLC), in a private transaction without public announcement or fanfare. The domain name cost $25 and was initially registered to GSR by Blogger, Inc., apparently as part of an agreement reached in the preceding month between GSR and Google, Inc., as a buyer interested in buying the domain name from Google.
In July 2013 it transpired that Blogspot had been sold to Nick Sullivan of Maker Studios for $40 million.
On February 26, 2006, the domain name blogspot.com became available for purchase, after it was transferred from Google Inc. to a privately held corporation called GSR, LLC (previously known as GBIS LLC), in a private transaction without public announcement or fanfare. The domain name cost $25 and was initially registered to GSR by Blogger, Inc., apparently as part of an agreement reached in the preceding month between GSR and Google, Inc., as a buyer interested in buying the domain name from Google.
On March 23, 2006, Blogger.com with the domain name blogspot.com became available for public purchase via purchase agreements that were being made available for download by Google users who had registered to log into their accounts before February 26, 2006 and had not yet logged into their accounts after February 26, 2006 at their own choice and without any need to renew or reapply for registration on Blogger's website.
On June 27, 2006, GSR moved to assume the rights of the buyer in Blogger Inc's $100K domain name sale contract to purchase blogspot.com and disclaimed all interest in the transaction it had made with Blogger, Inc. On September 18, 2006, GSR transferred the domain name blogspot.com to Blogger, Inc. On September 20, 2006, Blogger, Inc. registered blogspot.com on Blogger's website for $100K in consideration for the transfer of its rights under the domain name sale contract to GSR.
In February 2013, Google created a trademark dispute with the company Grokster Technologies regarding the term "blog". Google had applied to register the trademark "blog" in 2005 and Grokster had opposed it. On March 16, 2013, Google announced that it would be abandoning its trademark application for "blog".
On December 24, 2013, a ruling was made against Google for illegally utilizing the word "Blog" as a trademark.
Conclusion:
The term "blog" did not acquire distinct meaning until it was defined by the company Blogger, Inc. In the eyes of the law, "blog" is not a generic term. To establish that a mark has become generic one must meet a high standard: The defendant mark must be used on similar goods or services and also be used in such a manner that makes it clear to consumers that the defendant's product is not approved or endorsed by the trademark holder.
See Genericness for more information about this legal doctrine.
The use of any word as part of company name does not amount to making it generic for subsequent use as domain name.