Disputes over domain names and trademarks can be frustrating and tricky.

Sometimes using someone else’s trademark as your domain name can create consumer confusion. Who has the right to use a name? It can depend upon whether the use of the name may confuse potential customers — are the claimants to the name engaging in the same or similar commercial activities? It can also depend upon who the first one to use the name in commerce is.

That’s a simplification of the process of sorting the rights to use a name. More details are on the Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) page on the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy.

Google challenged the use of the domain name froogles.com by an online entrepreneur, claiming that it is too similar to “Google.”

They lost.

The arbitration dispute decision in favor of the owner of froogles won’t stop Google from trying to claim the same thing in a District Court. It’s a possible next step by the Search Engine giant.

According to the article, the owner of the froogles trademark is also challenging Google’s Froogle trademark. Will Google’s Froogle survive?