Independent IIR Research Plc (Formerly TMA)

Nurdin, from the final results announced in July:

Google

Google Inc. launched a web-based email service on April 1 2004 under the name of
Gmail, and the Group immediately flagged to Google that it considers this to be
an infringement upon its own pending trademark applications in relation to a
web-based e-mail service, of the same name. Google initially ignored the
Group's representations but subsequently in October 2005 withdrew the name in
the UK, though only partially; and separately, made an offer to settle with the
Group but on financial terms which were not acceptable (and indeed fell very
substantially below the valuation assessed in an independent report commissioned
by the Group in December 2004, available in full under "press releases", on the
Group's website at

That report concluded that the world-wide value of the trademark to Google,
applying industry-standard valuation techniques and based upon the latest Google
financial information at the time, was in the range of #25-#34mn. Data available
as at May 2006(6) suggest that Gmail is responsible for 5.51% of the traffic on
Google's web domains, and by inference 5.51% of the value of Google's revenues
(or market capitalisation). Clearly the value of our Trademark contributes only
a small percentage of that, but the data would nevertheless signal that the
value of our intellectual property claim is rising over time. It may therefore
be appropriate at some stage to withdraw the settlement proposals that have
previously been submitted to Google.

Negotiations with possible litigation partners, who can bring the financial
resources to permit the Group to effectively defend its intellectual property
rights, have been on-going for some time. These have however been put on hold
since June 2006 when Google took the initiative to re-establish contact and
discussion with the Group, with a fresh approach to a prospective settlement of
our claims. Progress in this vein, if any, will be announced in due course.