Kevin Warnock

goffice screen shot

I recently met Dan Farber, from ZD Net. I told him about my June 6, 2006 written offer to give Google the gOffice.com domain name for them to use to brand their online productivity applications.

Google ignored my offer, even though I sent it via three separate FedEx packages to Eric Schmidt, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Today Farber published a blog entry about my offer to give Google the gOffice.com domain name.

I am happy Farber disclosed my offer, as it will show others even years from now that I’m in no way squatting on the gOffice domain.

I am keeping the domain, and I will make the site a success over time. Who knows — Google may change their mind and pay me for it one of these years. Right now they appear determined to not antagonize Microsoft by offering a ‘GOffice.’ But over time Google may not care what Microsoft thinks, and may be eager to go head to head with market leading Microsoft Office.

Today my company Silveroffice, Inc. offered to give the domain goffice.com to Google, Inc. for their use in branding a future online office suite. Today I learned Google is planning to release an online spreadsheet application. If they pair that with their word processing application they already offer, they’ll have a suite, and I think gOffice would be a great brand for that office suite.

Letter by Kevin Warnock offering to give goffice.com domain to Google

I sent three separate FedEx packages with the letter I composed using the gOffice product. I sent a letter to the two founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin and the CEO, Eric Schmidt. I sent three packages to improve the odds that at least one of them would personally read my offer, which I think is kind and generous. I am sincere in my offer, and I think it’s in my company’s best interest to make this offer.

Click the link above to see the PDF format file produced natively by gOffice. Note the fine typography, the artful embedded fonts, the included letterhead graphic and the vector image of my signature.

I am confident there is no online system capable of preparing a finer quality letter. The technology behind gOffice will one day be patented, as it’s unique enough to merit that monopoly protection.

Just to be clear, my company is offering to give Google just the domain name, not the product or the company. The company will continue indefinitely. It will just change the name of its primary product if Google starts to use the gOffice.com domain itself.

For the benefit of search engine indexing and users that can’t read PDF format files on their device, here is the text only of the letter I today sent to Google:

Silveroffice, Inc.
220 Montgomery Street, Suite 1085
San Francisco, CA 94104
(415) 391-9200

Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt
Google, Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

6/6/06

Re: Offer to freely transfer GOFFICE.COM to Google for use with ‘Google Office’

Dear Messrs. Page, Brin & Schmidt:

I founded Silveroffice, Inc., the makers of gOFFICE.com, on 3/3/03 with the vision of
creating an online office suite.

I saw the news of Google Spreadsheets today, and it appears Google will soon offer
an online office suite comprised of that product and Writely’s word processor.

I am writing to offer to freely transfer the GOFFICE.COM Internet domain name to Google
for use in branding Google’s online office suite.

Eric, I believe you know Eric Jensen, my friend and attorney for the last 10 years, as
he attended Siebel board meetings with you. You may contact him for a reference. His
email is [redacted]cooley.com.

Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,

Silveroffice, Inc.

Kevin L. Warnock
Founder

PS – this letter was typeset with LaTeX at gOFFICE.com, and faxed directly from that
site, with the graphics and signature embedded.