Microsoft’s search engine Bing! may find itself in court over the name it chose for the search engine. Apparently, there is another company called Bing! (with the exclamation mark). It is an internet design company based in Missouri and according their lawyers, they have been using the name for more nearly ten years.
They also allege that Microsoft’s use of the name will create confusion in the marketplace.
In my opinion, I cannot see how any confusion can arise.
Microsoft are not averse to stomping over people that use even variations of their name in websites (Especially if they are critical of their products.) However this case is slightly different. Microsoft is a global company that everyone has heard of and a large proportion even have the misfortune to use their products every day.
I would not find myself typing a query into the search engine when I meant to order a website or conversely, ask for a website to be built in a search engine only to have a list of search results returned. In any event, the difficulty can be resolved by being more precise with the language.
If the Bing! in question is ambiguous then clarify it by saying Bing! the search engine or Bing! the web design company. The default position will be Bing! the search engine since most people did not know there was a web design company called Bing! until now. If there is still any doubt, then say Google.