BMW to check trademark case over Google's Alphabet

Germany's BMW said Tuesday it was checking the "trademark implications" of Google naming its new parent company Alphabet, which is the registered name of one of the auto maker's subsidiaries.

Internet giant Google has founded Alphabet as a holding company to group its search engine and other projects such as research arm X Lab, investment unit Google Ventures and health and science operations.

The move surprised Munich-based BMW, which has for years run a subsidiary with the same name that provides corporate car fleet services.

It has the Internet domain name www.alphabet.com while Google's new parent company has the address www.abc.xyz.

"It'll be necessary to examine the legal trademark implications," a BMW spokeswoman told German business magazine WirtschaftsWoche. She repeated the comment to AFP, stressing that this would be a "routine procedure".

BMW said it had not been contacted by Google before the surprise announcement of the new parent company.

BMW along with Germany's Audi and Daimler announced Monday they had teamed up to buy digital mapping service HERE, a competitor of Google Maps, for 2.8 billion euros ($3.1 billion) from Nokia.