Google have announced that they are now offering gmail.com addresses to UK users. The first UK adopters of Gmail (myself included) were allowed to register gmail.com addresses, but in 2005, a claim for trademark infringement was issued by a small company called "Independent Investment Research" who claimed to have created a web based email system using the same name 2 years previously and demanded a stupidly high settlement figure of up to 48 million pounds just to use the gmail moniker. Consequenlty, Google dropped gmail.com in the uk, but international users could still register gmail addresses.

The recent decision follows an agreement with IIIR for "an undisclosed sum" - my guess is that its going  to be far less than the original, extortionate demand.