Google has just revealed that Gmail users in the UK will soon be able to choose to switch back to an @gmail.com email address rather than @googlemail.com.

Though Gmail became the standard address with the launch of Gmail in beta in April 2004, UK users who signed up after 19 October 2005 were saddled with the longer address after a legal spat between Google and a UK-based firm. Independent International Investment Research had been using the name 'Gmail' for its own webmail application two years before Google.

At the time, Google said IIIR had asked for an "exhorbitant" $50m for the Gmail trademark and after 15 months of negotiations, it pulled out and reverted to the Googlemail.com address for UK users. Google said at the time that IIIR's claims to the trademark were tenuous, and that "they have not provided sufficient evidence to establish common law rights based on use in the large number of countries it claimed use".

There's no hint today whether Google had continued these negotiations and/or paid up, the official Gmail blog announcement focusing on the efficiency of the new address.

"Since 'gmail' is 50% fewer characters than 'googlemail,' we estimate this name change will save approximately 60 million keystrokes a day. At about 217 microjoules per keystroke, that's about the energy of 20 bonbons saved every day!"





Photo by hellolapomme on Flickr. Some rights reserved

New sign-ups will get a gmail.com address, while users with an @googlemail.com address can choose to switch. Addresses are interchangeable, so your email will arrive whichever domain the sender uses.

Google has had similar trademark battles in Germany, Russia and Poland, and, interestingly, the original gmail.com domain was used by Garfield's creators.

Google doesn't break out figures for Gmail, but indicated with the launch of Buzz in February this year that around 170 million people are using Gmail.

• Update: Google sent us this statement: "After engaging in legal proceedings at the trademark office, we were able to reach a settlement with the party with whom we had the conflict. We are happy to have resolved this issue, and look forward to offering @gmail.com addresses to users in the UK. We are unable to disclose the settlement agreement details."