What Google has done is to send out annoying letters, which is different than being sued. If you get sued you need a lawyer. If you get an annoying letter you need a wastebasket.

The reason Google is sending out these letters is not because Google is feeling all persnickety about people using its name that way. Google's probably actually glad people use their name that way, and they don't like paying people to write letters any more than the rest of us.

The reason Google is sending the letters is this: suppose I came out with my own search engine called "Alkali Google." If Google wants to sue me for trademark infringement, I could argue that Google is a generic term, and that Google has abandoned any claim to that term. Under the case law, one accepted way for Google to prove otherwise is to point out that they've sent a lot of annoying letters to media outlets urging them not to use the term in a generic way. (The makers of Kleenex and Jeeps send similar letters, and also put ads in journalism reviews.)

Arugably, that is a stupid rule of law: the validity of trademark claims should not turn on making people jump through arbitrary hoops. Nevertheless, that's the way things are. Blame the courts or Congress for this state of affairs, not Google.

You missed some of the small print in Google's ceast-and-desist letters. Due to the danger of possible trademark infringement, "goggles" are now to be referred to as "eye protectors" and "gargoyles" should be referred to as "grotesque humanoid statues."

However, when "rinsing one's throat with a substance not intended to be swallowed," (formerly "gargling") making the "gl-gl-gl" sound is still permitted, as it does not infringe on Google's trademarked "combination of the "gl" sound with a long vowel."

Persons of Scottish origin or ancestry with names such as "MacGarrigle" may continue to use said surnames for non-commercial purposes, pending payment of a yearly licensing fee.