The legal consequences of using AI — and the safest way to do it
AI creates growing risks around copyright, privacy, misinformation, and compliance. Here’s how organizations can reduce legal exposure.
Topic: United States Patent and Trademark Office
This day in search marketing history: March 15
Spurious SEO trademark claim fails, plus: core updates named, EU wants Google's ranking factors, BBC link penalty and more.
Could Google passage indexing be leveraging BERT?
How Google leverages BERT depends on the use of the term ‘Passage Indexing’ (although it’s identified as a ranking update).
SearchCap: Google Serious On Mobile, Twitter Search Expands & AdWords Demographic Charts
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Is Experimenting With Special Ranking For Mobile-Friendly Sites Google already penalizes sites that provide a bad experience to mobile searchers. Now the company has confirmed that it’s testing with what […]
Google Granted Patent For Panda Algorithm
Google’s Panda update has been one of the most talked about algorithmic updates by SEOs and webmasters since it launched in February 2011. Today is the day the patent document describing Panda was granted. It was written by Navneet Panda, which is why it was named Panda, and Vladimir Ofitserov of Google. The patent application […]
BrightEdge Uses SEO Patents As “Sword,” Sues Searchmetrics
Oh no they didn’t: BrightEdge has sued rival Searchmetrics using multiple SEO patents, which were granted last year. The concern being expressed by some today is that this could be the beginning of a wave of litigation as BrightEdge seeks to capitalize on its newly granted IP or goes after competitors that it perceives to […]
Microsoft Sued By Company That Won Patent Lawsuit Against Google In 2012
New York-based Vringo has sued Microsoft over two patents that pertain to the ranking and placement of ads in search results. The patents were originally issued in the early ’90s and owned for a long time by Lycos, which later sold them. The patents in question are 6,314,420 and 6,775,664, referred to in the complaint (below) as the […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 21, 2013
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: The Power Of Headlines: The LA Times Gets It Right With Their Piece On The Inauguration Journalists call them headlines; SEOs call them titles and headings. Whatever you call them, they’re […]
Warren Buffett’s Business Wire Awarded Patent For Press Release SEO
Submitting press releases in hopes of gaining search traffic has long been an SEO tactic. But now Business Wire — one of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway companies — has been granted a patent over it. That’s pretty nuts. SEOing Press Releases, Patented! Yousaf Sekander over at ElevateLocal spotted the news and has his own write-up […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 21, 2011
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: AT&T: 43 Percent Of Local-Mobile Searchers “Walk Through The Door” There are a number of studies (e.g., Pew, Forrester) in the market that question how interested or engaged users are with […]
Google Loses Patent Case Over Linux Servers
The FOSS Patents blog reported that Google lost an important patent case on their Linux server kernels they have been using throughout the company. Bedrock Computer Technologies was awarded $5 million for Google infringing on their patent (U.S. Patent No. 5,893,120) named “Methods and apparatus for information storage and retrieval using a hashing technique with […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 16, 2011
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Transcript: Google & Bing On Whitelists & Exception Lists Last week at our SMX West show, Google and Bing spoke about how sites might get excepted from being harmed by particular […]
Facebook Patents Social Search (Courtesy Of Friendster)
Has Facebook patented social search? It appears so, according to a patent awarded earlier this year by the USPTO. The patent, written the same year Facebook was founded, has been previously discussed but escaped our notice until now. Originally filed in October 2004 and awarded this past February, the patent is for a system that […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 18, 2011
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Social Meets Search At Search Engine Land’s SMX West Event Everything we program at Search Engine Land’s SMX: Search Marketing Expo events are always related to search. So why a post […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 13, 2010
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Claims Victory In French Supreme Court Keyword Trademark Case Google wrote that they were victorious in a ruling today by the French Supreme Court over trademark infringement charges brought to […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 3, 2010
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google’s AdSense For Mobile (Apps) Becomes Gateway To Other Mobile Ad Networks Google announced that its AdSense for Mobile Apps program would start allowing publishers and developers to work with third […]
Google, US Patent Office Partner To Offer Bulk Data Downloads
From search to download. That’s what Google and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office have done with Wednesday’s announcement that bulk data on patents and trademarks are now available for free. Google is hosting hundreds of downloadable ZIP files at google.com/googlebooks/uspto.html; the patent office estimates that nearly ten terabytes of information is available. Google and […]
Nexus One Comes To AT&T, Rogers But Runs Into Trademark Trouble
Google announced today that the Nexus One handset is now compatible with the 3G networks of AT&T in the US and Rogers Wireless in Canada. A CDMA version (for Verizon) is coming soon. However the phones are unsubsidized (no contract) so you’ll pay full price — unless buying from original Nexus One carrier T-mobile. The […]
Meet The 25-Year-Old Who Saved “SEO” From Being Trademarked
After two years and nearly $20,000 of her own money, Rhea Drysdale forced the USPTO to reject an attempt to trademark the term.
SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 21, 2010
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Beats Estimates With Very Strong Q4: $6.67 Billion Google posted a very strong Q4, given the recession, with $6.67 billion in revenues. This beats financial analyst general consensus estimates. Here […]
Another Person No One’s Heard Of Tries To Trademark SEO
HuoMah Blog discovered that yet another person is trying to claim a trademark on the term SEO, search engine optimization. Clinton Cimring of a company called “Search Engine Partner” filed a trademark application with United States Patent and Trademark Office on January 5, 2009. The filing claims first use SEO as a trademark was on […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, September 2, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google AdSense Improves The Competitive Ad Filter The Google AdSense blog has made improvements to the competitive ad filter. The two major changes includes increasing the size of the competitive ad […]
Google’s Home Page Clears United States Patent Office
Gawker reports Google’s home page patent application, which was filed back in March 2004, has finally been approved yesterday, September 1, 2009. The patent is for the simplicity of the Google home page. Here is a picture of the patented home page: Postscript From Danny Sullivan: It’s unclear yet whether Google intends to enforce its […]
Small Business Owner Sues Google & Others Over ‘Android’ Name
An Illinois small business owner is suing Google and 46 other companies because he says they’re infringing on his business name: Android Data. Forbes reports that the lawsuit was filed Tuesday, and seeks almost $100 million in damages from Google and all other companies in the Open Handset Alliance, which includes T-Mobile, Motorola, Toshiba, Sprint […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 2, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Who Coined The Term SEO?
Someone’s trying to trademark the term SEO, which has roiled the SEO community. The someone is named Jason Gambert, and he has filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, claiming to have coined the term “SEO” (for Search Engine Optimization). SEOMoz and others have moved to challenge Gambert’s claim. As the person (along with […]
Cuil Fast Test – Relevancy Isn’t A Google Killer
Now that Cuil is live, I wanted to do a few fast queries to get a sense of how it seems to stack up against Google. With the huge caveat that nine queries are far from letting anyone conclude anything, I still didn’t come away with a sense that Cuil has Google-beating relevancy. Instead, it […]
Will Software Patents (Including On Search Algorithms ) Go Away?
It’s fairly safe to say: 1) patent law is a mess, 2) patent law is in transition, and 3) newer court rulings are reducing the rights of patent holders. But in a very provocative argument, based on recent cases, the PatentlyO law blog argues that new rules and tests imposed by courts (though not yet […]
Google, AOL, Yahoo, & Digg Sued For Playing Online Solitaire
Digg And Others Sued For Infringing Infamous Computer Solitaire Patent from Techdirt reports Google, Yahoo, AOL, and even Digg were all sued by Sheldon F. Goldberg for patent infringement of US Patent 6,264,560. The Electronic Frontier Foundation calls Sheldon a wanted person who has crimes against the public domain for threatening small online gaming websites […]
Googlebot In Aisle Three: How Google Plans To Index The World?
Robots reading cereal boxes in the supermarket? Googlebot at the art museum? Street signs and building addresses snatched from Street View images for local search, image search, and product search? Three new patent applications published at the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office this week explore the intricacies of reading text in images taken from Google’s […]
Search Year 2007: Search News, In Review
Each month, I compile Search Month — a recap of all the stories that have happened relating to search, categorized by topic. I thought it would be fun to take all the Search Months over the past year and produce this edition of Search Year 2007. It was far more work than I imagined, but […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, September 3, 2007
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Gpay: Google To Enable Payments On Mobile Devices Via SMS?
Friday, a Google patent application filing named Text message payment was posted at the US Patent & Trademark Office site. The patent described how “GPay” can be used to make payment via text messages. An example of how Gpay can be used includes mostly offline scenarios such as paying for items in vending machines or […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 25, 2007
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Local.com Announces Patent For Location-Based Search
I’ve got a patent, you’ve got a patent. It seems that nearly everyone running an Internet company has a patent nowadays. Local.com is the latest to announce a patent in the local space. The patent (no. 7,231,405), which I was unable to locate through a USPTO and Google Patents search, “covers local search technology related […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 15, 2007
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Local Mobile Search Provider 1-800-Free411 Touts Patent Against Rivals
USAToday writes about a recently awarded patent obtained by Jingle Networks, which operates the 1-800-Free411 ad-supported directory assistance service. After conducting several searches at the USPTO and elsewhere I was unable to find a copy of the patent itself. However, according to the article: Jingle’s patent, which it bought from inventor Scott Wolmuth, is for […]
Google Revisits Historical Data Ranking Factors
One of the biggest stirs of 2005 in the search marketing field was caused by the release of a patent application from Google titled Information retrieval based on historical data. It introduced time as a dimension of ranking pages, with changes in content and linking and advertising and topics as factors to be considered, as […]
February 2007: Search Engine Land’s Most Popular Stories
Below are Search Engine Land’s 10 most popular stories from February 2007:
PhraseRank, Not PageRank, To Fight Search Spam
Can indexing phrases from pages be an effective approach in identifying and filtering keyword stuffed pages, and honeypot pages aimed at attracting visitors solely to have them click upon ads? A new patent application published yesterday and assigned to Google, Detecting spam documents in a phrase based information retrieval system, presents a reasonable argument in […]