Baidu Brand for Sale? Definitely not China Baidu! Has it ever occurred to you that there is another Baidu out there?

“Baidu Europe”, a small-sized, five-year-old Holland-based web solution service company, is now selling its 13 European domain names which are protected in 27 European countries and include Baidu.eu, Baidu.tv, Baidu.be, Baidu.nl.

The move has been taken in response to the mounting difficulties faced by the European company in front of China-based Baidu rising popularity which has brought the Chinese search engine to become the no.3 in the world.Problems for Baidu Europe started in 2006, when the Chinese giant decided to be promoted in Europe by a Dutch company. From then on, Baidu has gained more visibility outside of China and promotional activities related to the recent Olympic Games have done nothing but increasing awareness for the Chinese brand.

Thus, considering the increasing confusion among the two brands identities managing Director P. Ufkes of Baidu Europe has decided to sell out the brand rights even though “Baidu Europe had gained a very good reputation during the past five years”.

Apparently, the company has received several offers so far and we wonder if the China-based Baidu is among them. If the China-based Baidu can get the deal, the road to branding in Europe will be a lot more easy. No wonder, Baidu Europe’s trademark representative told Forbes “We are not planning to approach the Asian Baidu. We expect it to come to us.”