This morning sitting down at my computer to work on some things related to our new venture RushCrowds got really exciting for once when a  flurry of emails and DM’s scurried around and I realized an issue that I knew was floating around out there, was suddenly today very much in the news.

A couple of months ago friends of mine and @davideedle Josie Meadows and Col Red who run a little and very gorgeous frames shop in Albert Park, let me in on the secret that they’d just received a rather scary letter from Google’s lawyers about their business name Scoogle.

Col Redmond sporting Scoogle frames.

Now before you make the obvious link, well hey aren’t they playing on the hugeness in the brand Google here, the answer is actually no.

Scougal is the maternal family name of Josie’s and goes back a long way with particular resonance for Josie and Col. The business name was chosen to honour in a quiet way, history and heritage and some unique individuals on this side of Josie’s family. The change to Scoogle was an honourable nod to the family name but jazzing it up a little.

Josie is an optician by background and Col is an industrial designer. Both Scoogle founders have a great love and passion for unique and interesting design. Col for many years has been working on a new design for a scooter. The two go to Belgium and Spain and Paris every year talking to frames designers and picking up some of the best frames that are being hand-made anywhere in the world today.

Scoogle sells frames for fetching faces and is being sued by Google.

The frames at Scoogle (I have 2 pairs of sunglasses and one pair of optical glasses) are all gorgeous, individual, hand-made and lean towards a tradition of artisanship and care and quality in the design and creation of the utilitarian object. Scoogle sells products that are artisan/craftsmanship of the highest order.

So ironic then that this tiny store, selling a very specific niche product should be under legal fire from the monolith that is Google about losses due to infringement of brand, or something to that end.

You can read all about what’s going on with Scoogle and their legal stoush with the goliath that is Google in a great article by @bengrubb in today’s Sydney Morning Herald at Screw you, Scoogle, says Google.Please take the time to vote in the poll at the bottom of the story and lend your support to Josie and Col at Scoogle. And don’t hold back from voicing your opinion about this if it stirs you, on Twitter and Facebook. It’s worrying when a small, niche Victorian business is legally intimidated by a huge global monolith that seems to know no bounds.

Photos: Col Redmond