Lawsuit: Google’s AdSense For Domains Program Contributes To Trademark Infringement

Google Sued in Domainer Lawsuit–Vulcan Golf v. Google from Eric Goldman covers a new lawsuit in which Google is being sued for allegedly violating trademarks by helping domainers monetize “typosquatter” domains. Eric explains that this filing (4.3MB PDF) may be the first lawsuit against Google for its domainer relationships. The complaint considers Google as the […]

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Google Sued in Domainer Lawsuit–Vulcan Golf v. Google from Eric Goldman covers a new lawsuit in which Google is being sued for allegedly violating trademarks by helping domainers monetize “typosquatter” domains.


Eric explains that this filing (4.3MB PDF) may be the first lawsuit against Google for its domainer relationships. The complaint considers Google as the domain name licensee, because AdSense for Domains effectively takes control of domains in the program.

Google’s policies aren’t supposed to allow typo domains to be in its program, but these get through. And since Google puts ads on them, the case alleges Google is contributing to trademark infringement.


About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.

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