Microsoft & Google Sued Over Paid Search Patent Infringement

Feb 20, 2008 at 9:07am ET by Barry Schwartz

Google And Microsoft Sued For Patent Infringement from MediaPost reports Google and Microsoft were sued for patent infringement over their paid search platforms. A Ohio based company named Paid Search Engine Tools of Liberty Township said Google’s AdWords and Microsoft’s adCenter products infringe on their patent, “Paid search engine bid management.” The full patent can be found here and as you can see, it was filed on Dec 20, 2002 and granted on May 9, 2006 to Paid Search Engine Tools, LLC.

J. Robert Chambers, the company’s attorney, said the company-held patent was for a method of optimizing keyword bids. He argues that the Paid Search Engine Tools offered this service to their clients but when Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft began offering the service directly, it cut into their revenues.

The case was brought in front of an Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division.

You may ask why Yahoo wasn’t brought in with this lawsuit? Well, it appears they were sued directly by the same company back on September 13, 2007 over the same patent.

Hat tip to Andy Beal.

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.

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