As it turns out, the domain alphabet.com, as well as the trademark for the name, are already owned by a company called BMW. What's more, the New York Times reports, BMW has no interest in selling either. And while they operate in different areas of business, there could be a small problem when it comes to self-driving cars.
Different companies could operate under the same name as long as there is no confusion for customers, but Google's Alphabet will be operating the self-driving car operation. Meanwhile, BMW's Alphabet is a subsidiary that offers services to corporation car fleets. A BMW spokeswoman told the NYT that BMW had not been informed of Google's plans, nor had they been contacted with an offer to sell the domain. Meanwhile, Google has been using the domain abc.xyz. But as two companies operating in the 'auto industry,' rather than playing chicken in court and seeing who has the more expensive lawyer, wouldn't it be easier to hash it out with a good ol' drag race?
