Goooglie Cars minicab boss hits sticky wicket after web giant sues him for mimicking its logo

Google has pursued a mini cab firm for seven years for mimicking its brand, despite firm saying they had already changed their name.

A London minicab owner is having to fork out £10,000 to Google within 28 days after he lost a seven-year high court battle with the web giant.

Sohail Nagi was told by a High Court judge that his company, Googlie Cars was “unfairly free-riding” on Google’s undisputable reputation.

Google’s lawyers had initially written to Mr Nagi in 2012 complaining that his business, then called ‘Gooogle Cars’ was “micking” its logo, with the font and colour scheme bearing an uncanny resemblance to the original.

Sparked by the letter, Mr Nagi then added an ‘i’ to the name and promised the tech company that he would add cricket balls in replacement of each ‘o’ in a nod to the “googly” ball of a spin bowler.

Google’s lawyer’s said these changes happened after they had filed a claim at the High Court this year.

Google agreed to cap its legal fees, meaning Mr Nagi was asked to pay roughly half of what they incurred during the legal tussle.

Judge Gordon Nurse said capping costs at £10,000 was “very generous” of the Silicon Valley brand.

Mr Nagi, whose car service is based in Streatham, told The Evening Standard: “It’s not fair. We’re just a small family business and if we have to pay this money it will force us to close.  “We are a small fish and they are big giants.”

He added that he changed the logo in correspondence with Google’s request but now had to fork out additional costs. “I can’t even think if I’ve ever had that much money,” he said. “We only just make enough money to keep our heads above water”.

Mr Nagi has just four weeks to pay and was told Google could claim against his home in Mitcham.

A request by Google for Mr Nagi to change the name entirely was rejected by the judge, who said that the cricket-style logo was “extremely difficult to associate with Google, the might tech company”.

Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc wrote on its website: “You can’t mess around with our marks. Only we get to do that.”

Google were contacted for comment.