Comments on: Google Sued For Trademark Infringement By American Airlines Over Sponsored Ads

By: semreportcard

semreportcard — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 16:24:42 +0000

Kudos to American Airlines for bringing the suit. A lot of search marketers and agencies are ignorant to the significance of trademark protection, until they themselves have issues.

Everyone seems to think that these trademark suits are fruitless, but that mentality couldn’t be farther than the truth.

Google was hammered by the courts in the Geico v. Google suit which forced Google to settle out of court and change their trademark policy.

It is only a matter of time before we will finally have real trademark protection in the ads of search engines.

I am looking forward to the day a class action is brought against all the search engines. Can you imagine the aggregate dollar amount of compensatory damages?

By: Troy Perkins

Troy Perkins — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 01:27:20 +0000

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had problems with American Airlines from a flight perspective. In fact the last issue was a 24 hour bump which consumed me and wifes trip (ruined!) to Vegas. She and I have vowed never to travel via AA again.

Now their suing Google for this… Please!!!

By: Scott Clark

Scott Clark — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 18:34:45 +0000

http://www.americanairlines.com, americanairlines.com, and AmericanAirlines Com AS A KEYWORD is definitely problematic. Those are really just a form of cybersquatting, no?

The others are an effect of a generically named company. I mean TWA is an American airlines, too.

So, my expert solution? I think they should change their name to something more Web 2.0.

gigaflyster airlines

Then they’d have something to rumble about.

By: Johnny T

Johnny T — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 17:44:23 +0000

That’s funny…I just did a search on Google for ‘google’ and received a sponsored add for a search firm. I also searched for ‘goole’ and received a sponsored ad for batanga.com (whatever that is – the ad was in spanish I believe).

If I were AA, instead of spending money on a lawsuit – I’d pump money into my PPC marketing teams and have them optimize all of their keyword ads. But that’s just me.

By: Garry - PPC-Advice.com

Garry - PPC-Advice.com — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 16:01:46 +0000

It amazes me what companies will sue for these days. I can see how larger corporations may take action against trademarks appearing in display text, but targeting a keyword is commonplace. Your post inspired me to write on why keyword lawsuits fail. Garry