Court Says Keyword Metatags Don’t Matter–Standard Process v. Banks by Eric Goldman uncovers a recent case between Standard Process, Inc. v. Banks that shows that the court has ruled that the META keywords tag is “immaterial.” Goldman said this is the first time the courts ruled based on knowledge of how the META keywords impact search rank, as opposed to past cases such as National American Medical vs Axiom, where a court ruled Meta Tags Can Constitute Infringement.

Goldman puts it best, explaining his distaste for past judgments in the area of trademark law with the META tags:

Lawyers, on the other hand, have been living in a parallel fantasy universe where keyword metatags single-handedly divert unwaveringly brand-loyal customers to piratical competitors.

Getting back to the Standard Process, Inc. v. Banks case, Standard Process filed suit against Dr. Scott J. Banks for trademark infringement. Although Standard Process won part of the case, the judge ruled that since the keyword META tags do not influence search results, having trademarked terms in them are immaterial. I do not have access to the court document on that specific decision at this moment, but I trust Eric Goldman on that.

Related Topics: Legal: Trademarks

About The Author: 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. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz