Earlier this week, Google announced it was in the process of restructuring its company under a new holding company called 'Alphabet.' It looks like the newly minted conglomerate is already running into some naming issues however, as both the Alphabet trademark and internet domain alphabet.com are already owned by German automotive manufacturer BMW.
The complication has become a running gag on the internet, with many news outlets wondering if company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin bothered to Google their chosen name before announcing it to the world.
Alphabet is a subsidiary of BMW that deals in corporate car fleet services. As of this writing, the company's website is inaccessible due to, presumably, the immense traffic being generated by this news.
"We are not planning to sell the domain," Said BMW Spokeswoman Micaela Sandstede to The New York Times. She told the newspaper that the website is a "very active" part of Alphabet's business. According to her, Google did not notify the automaker beforehand about their upcoming move.
The Times report notes that it's not just BMW that is facing naming issues because of Google's decision:
"On Wall Street, there is an Alphabet Funds. Lots of midsize and small companies also use the name Alphabet. There is an Alphabet Energy in Hayward, Calif.; an Alphabet Record Company in Austin, Tex.; an Alphabet Plumbing in Prescott, Ariz.; and numerous preschools, inns and restaurants with some variation of the name."
Google will also need to do some negotiating if it wants the alphabet name on Twitter as well. The username @alphabet already belongs to a man from Cleveland, Ohio named Chris Andrikanich. He sent this tweet out a couple of days ago in response to Google's big news:
Well, that was an interesting way to end a Monday...
— Chris Andrikanich (@alphabet) August 10, 2015
