Alphabet Inc.’s Google is locked in a legal battle to avoid a potential global rebranding of YouTube Shorts, its rival to TikTok and Reels.
(Bloomberg) — Alphabet Inc.’s Google is locked in a legal battle to avoid a potential global rebranding of YouTube Shorts, its rival to TikTok and Reels.
The US tech giant won a ruling on Thursday paving the way for the UK High Court to settle a dispute with short-film firm Shorts International Ltd., which alleges YouTube’s use of the word “short” infringes its trademarks.
“This case, in terms of value and importance is at the high end on the scale,” lawyer Lindsay Lane for Google said during the hearing. Google had claimed that an adverse ruling could incur massive re-branding costs and technical changes on the platform, the judge said while giving the order.
Alphabet launched its short video platform on YouTube two years back to counter the rising popularity of the format on rival mobile apps of TikTok Inc. and Instagram Reels of Meta Platforms Inc..
Shorts International’s lawyer said the company has been operating for over two decades and using its name to distribute short films across various platforms, including YouTube.
The word “Shorts” and the manner of use is likely to confuse people that YouTube has acquired the brand Shorts or Shorts International is its subsidiary, the company’s lawyers said in court filings.
In the court’s Thursday order allowing a longer trial, Google’s concerns about the significant impact of the case outweighed Shorts International’s concerns about “imbalance of resources between the two parties,” Shorts International said in an emailed statement. “This was a procedural application on the best forum for deciding Shorts’ claim, not a victory for Google.”
(Updates with comments from Shorts International in seventh paragraph.)
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