As if the things were not going rough enough for Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) smartphone plans, the company has been reportedly denied the Nexus One trademark by the US Patent and Trademark Office. From Google’s perspective, things were already going a little slow in terms of sales volumes. The company was reported this week to have been denied the trademark on the grounds that the same are already held by Integra Telecom in the United States.

Predictably, Google plans to contest the ruling. However, the company will continue to launch the handset with new carriers in the country. Sprint has announced that it would offering the handset "soon", and touted 3G coverage twice the size of AT&T's and 10 times the size of T-Mobile—when roaming is included. This will require a different CDMA version of the handset to be sold—Google has previously noted that it is working on a version of the phone for the Verizon CDMA network, which would presumably be the same as the Sprint handset. The handset will be offered only through the Google web store. Google has also announced that the handset will be available with AT&T in the United States, and Rogers in Canada, which uses a different 3G frequency (850 MHz, 1900 MHz, and 2100) from T-Mobile (900 MHz, AWS, and 2100 MHz) and other countries GSM frequencies. The device will also be shipped to Canada from the web store.

There have been reports that sales have been slow—and are likely badly affected by the fact that it is not possible for most potential buyers to have a hands-on experience with the phone as it is sold exclusively through the Google web store. The Google NexusOne, manufactured by HTC, has just managed 135,000 units since the launch of the phone. In the same period, Verizon clocked 1.05 million Android phones. Apple, on the other side, ruled the roost with 1 million unit sales of the previous generation iPhone.

One thing going in the favor of Google is the increased availability and range of the carriers, which is likely to increase sales of the handset to an extent.

The stock, after making an intermediate bottom, has appreciated more than 5 percent in the last 5 trading sessions. The increase was partially aided by earning estimate revisions on the positive side by the brokers lately. Investment banking firms are hopeful of the company posting better than expected results in the first quarter.