Google has won a legal challenge that could have forced the tech giant to drop the branding of ‘shorts’ from its TikTok-inspired platform.
Google, which owns YouTube, was brought to a UK court by London-based short film distributor Shorts, which argued that YouTube’s branding of its shorter-form video scrolling platform – also called Shorts – has caused “confusion” and has been “diluting” its reputation.
Shorts International claimed it had “not just lost its distinctiveness, but its services have been overshadowed by the massive scale of Google’s reach, whose pervasive advertising, product availability, and digital presence has quickly drowned it out”.
A British High Court has ruled in favour of Google, with judge Michael Tappin arguing that “none of Google’s uses of signs including the word ‘shorts’ gives rise to a likelihood of confusion as to origin”.
He admitted there are “significant similarities” between the companies’ branding, however, he said “Google’s uses of signs including the word “shorts” will not cause damage to the distinctive character or repute of SIL’s trademarks”.
“Google’s signs do not misrepresent its service as being provided by SIL or in some way authorised by SIL,” Tappin added.
Shorts International launched its TV channel dedicated to short films in 2007. The company’s legal team claimed it was the “first and now the largest and best-known TV channel” of its kind.
YouTube launched its Shorts product in 2020. It allows users to infinitely scroll through a series of short clips in a similar fashion to TikTok.
According to Google parent company Alphabet, in 2022 YouTube Shorts generated over 30 billion views daily with around two billion users.
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