The 33-year-old businessman, Daniel Giersch, has won his legal battle against Google on the use of its “Gmail” brand for the free electronic mail service that Google offers.

The regional court in the Northern City of Hamburg declared that Google may not use the name in Germany, thus supporting the German entrepreneur’s claim that he has a copyright on the name for an e-mail service which he has been developing for seven years.

Giersch also cleared out the speculations that he was trying to extort a princely sum from the company for the brand name.