Utah Says Oops About Law Regulating Trademarks & Search Ads

Apr 30, 2007 at 8:46am ET by Danny Sullivan

Via TechDirt, High-Tech Execs Meet With Lawmakers Over Web Search Keyword Law from the Associated Press covers how Utah might not enforce its new law banning ads linked to trademark terms. The law is set to go into effect today.

We covered various issues with the law earlier this month. Now Utah lawmakers appear to understand better some of the challenges after talking with Google, eBay, AOL, Yahoo and Overstock. From the article:

"I wish we had had this interaction with industry 60 days ago," Utah House Majority Leader Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara, said. "We would have all been better off."

Yeah, you think? Would it be too much to have expected Utah lawmakers to have that type of interaction before they pass laws like this, especially when Utah’s own state attorney warned of potential problems?

Danny Sullivan is editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land. He’s a widely cited authority on search engines and search marketing issues who has covered the space since 1996. Danny also oversees Search Engine Land’s SMX: Search Marketing Expo conference series, maintains a personal blog called Daggle and microblogs on Twitter as @dannysullivan.

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4 COMMENTS ON Utah Says Oops About Law Regulating Trademarks & Search Ads

Marek Wawrzyniak, April 30th, 2007 at 6:19 pm ET:

Danny, is using “About About” done on purpose in the title? :)

Best…
Marek (jazyfko)

Danny Sullivan, April 30th, 2007 at 6:33 pm ET:

I guess I love the word “about” so much I wanted to use it twice :)

Got it fixed, thanks!

steve haar, May 1st, 2007 at 9:57 am ET:

I think anyone who followed this was asking ‘what don’t the legislators understand?’
I know I was. Now, I know. Neither the legislators nor their staffs did any homework. Reading the press over the last day or so, it was apparent that Mr. Clark and his staff never reached out to the engines, or bothered to gain input from outside the small circle of lobbyist.

Danny, your quote from Mr. Clark, when read in full context, placed the blame on the media for not coming to him to express concerns. If they had simply read the press and blogs, they would have had a clear picture that this was not going to fly…But then, they could have reached out to Google or Yahoo!, or Overstock, or eBay, or….

But they didn’t.

Frank T, May 1st, 2007 at 11:20 am ET:

I’m thinking this has nothing to do with their general population. Living only an hour or so from the UTAH border, we see this all the time in this “religious-based” state. It boils down to what the church wants, the church gets… or at least tries to get. Now that the religion population in SLC is quickley going downhill (almost 5% per year, over the last few years), the church has less and less power. Enjoy the week!

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