Titillating new search engine may irk Google

Booble, a new adult oriented search engine, has launched to direct "porn fiends ... through more than 6,000 hand-selected listings of Internet adult content."

Interestingly, the logo and homepage bear a striking similarity to Google, but Google shouldn't worry since the anonymous businessman who has created the site says "it's a parody, it's funny and we're not out to confuse anybody so we hope [Google] will take the joke in the spirit in which it was intended."

I'm sure Google's lawyers will appreciate the fact that Booble may be seen to be tarnishing their trademark and more likely than not profiting from directing people to those adult content sites.

Also, a Whois search doesn't reveal the anonymity of the "anonymous businessman" since he has registered it by proxy.

Source: Yahoo! News: Looking for porn? Now you can just Booble it

See also: Deere v. MTD, (2d Cir. 1994) (seller of commercial products who seeks attention for their product by poking fun runs the risk of diluting the selling power of plaintiff's trademark) | but see L.L. Bean v. Drake Publishers, Inc., 811 F.2d 26 (1st Cir. 1987) (non-commercial parody, even if pornographic, is not tarnishment)