Search ads trigger trademark lawsuit from rival from News.com reports on another search ad trademark lawsuit. This one differs in that the plaintiff is not suing a search engine, but rather suing his competitor. NameSafe sued LifeLock for allegedly allowing one of their resellers to show search ads with NameSafe’s trademarks within the ad copy. […]
Google wants to attract more brand advertising dollars in search. However, it also allows marketers to bid on trademarked or branded terms they don’t own or control so long as those keywords are not part of the ad copy. This practice so far passes legal muster in the US (although there’s ongoing litigation). Google recently […]
Google’s recent decision to make its UK keyword bidding policy conform with the US practice of allowing competitors to bid on each other’s brands has drawn ire and threats of legal action. Today brings more such news of potential legal action against Google from a range of travel companies and retailers in the UK.
In the US marketers may use competitors’ trademarks as keywords, so long as they don’t appear in the ad text itself. Previously Google used a more restrictive policy in the UK, not allowing use of competitors’ trademarks at all. Last month the company changed its UK rules to conform to the more liberal US policy. […]
Eric Goldman reports that a US District Judge in Florida ordered an advertiser using a trademark term to use the negative keyword option, to ensure that they would no longer bid on that term in the future. The judge ordered the defendant to stop using the word “ORION” in their search ad campaigns by adding […]
The Google Public Policy Blog informed us that Utah has changed the law that restricted search engines from triggering ads based on trademarked terms. This reversal now puts Utah in sync with the precedent set forth by the federal trademark law. In short, you can now legally bid on trademarked terms in Utah, assuming you […]
Yahoo announced that the minimum bid of $0.10 within the search network will no longer be a true minimum bid. Yahoo is changing it so that the minimum bids can be lower or higher than $0.10. This does not impact the content network. What makes a minimum bid go higher or lower? Two factors: (1) […]
Eric Goldman has updated us on the ongoing Connor Sport Court and Rhino Court case involving Google. The case, which we covered in Want Competitive Keyword Information? Just Subpoena Google!, suggested that Google was going to hand over competitive keyword data simply because one company filed a subpoena for it. Google has, in fact, declined […]
Google seeks dismissal of American Airlines suit from Dallas Business Journal reports that Google has filed a motion to dismiss the American Airlines vs. Google trademark case. In that case, American Airlines sued Google for allowing advertisers to bid on their trademark names. Gary Price located the motion to dismiss document (PDF format). Google argues […]
Eric Goldman reports that American Airlines is suing Google over trademark infringement in AdWords. As Eric points out, this type of lawsuit is nothing new to Google. Many companies have taken Google to court for allowing advertisers to bid on their trademarked names. However, in this case, American Airlines, the two words, are extremely generic […]
We spotted a new Google AdWords phenomenon yesterday – as you know, Google “bolds” words in ad text that match the keywords you’re bidding on. The example below shows that synonyms of keywords are now appearing in boldface. We’ve confirmed with Google that this is a new “feature,” and it also works with antonyms. So, […]
Judge won’t dismiss Google trademark suit from Reuters reports that the long-standing lawsuit over keywords linked to trademarked terms filed by American Blinds against Google will continue to trial. Google’s request for summary judgment has been denied. Google’s won in two similar suits within the US. Courtesy of Gary Price, you can get a copy […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web:
Google opposes Utah law limiting keyword advertising from the LA Times provides a little more coverage about the new Utah law that regulates keyword-based advertising, which Danny covered earlier. Reportedly, Google is “objecting” to this law, though how exactly isn’t detailed.
Wow. Via Techdirt, news from the EFF that the Utah legislature has passed a Trademark Protection Act law preventing people from buying ads linked to terms that are also trademarks of others. The Trademark Blog notes the law probably violates the US Constitution. Certainly it will be hard to enforce. In addition, we’ve got US […]
Consumer watchdog Public Citizen has filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of Michael Morgan, a Florida realtor sued by homebuilder Lennar for using its corporate name in the URL of a web site critical of Lennar, and for buying sponsored search ads using the trademarked name to promote the site. According to […]
I saw Should Google Give Brand Owners A Cut? from InsideGoogle earlier, about the idea of Google paying brand owners a share of revenues of those advertising on their names. Then a reader just emailed me asking what I think about the idea. OK, I’ll bite. In short — probably not. More on that below, […]
Caydel reports that Google is beta testing a keyword based competitive ad filter solution for Google AdSense. Currently, AdSense publishers can block ads from showing on a URL by URL basis. It appears that Google may be testing a feature that will allow AdSense publishers to block ads from showing via a keyword list. If […]