Lawsuit Says Google's Sale of Keywords Is Illegal 247
Hugh Pickens writes "Google encourages advertisers to purchase other companies' trademarks as targeted search terms, and they're expanding the practice into 190 countries. When Audrey Spangenberg typed the name of her small software company into Google and saw the ads of competitors that had paid Google to display their marketing messages whenever someone searched for FirePond, a registered trademark, she was furious. This week, her company filed a class-action suit against Google in federal court, saying that Google had infringed on her company's trademark, and challenged Google's policies on behalf of all trademark owners in the state. Legal experts said it was the first class-action suit against Google over the issue. Google's acceptance of such competitive uses of trademarks has irked many other companies, including the likes of American Airlines and Geico, who have filed suits against Google and settled them. Many brand owners say the practice abuses their brands, confuses customers and increases their cost of doing business. 'I know of several companies spending millions of dollars a year in payments to Google to make sure that their company is the very first sponsored link' on searches for their own names, said Terrence Ross, a partner at Gibson Dunn, who represented American Airlines in its suit against Google. 'It certainly smacks of a protection racket,'"
Re:is it infringement? (Score:5, Funny)
What google did is more akin to spraying a car with McDonalds analogies, then leaving the key in the ignition.
Next to an open wifi point.
Re:Geico banned keyword (Score:1, Funny)
Well, I'm alittle puzzled as to how this could possibly be infringement of any actual laws of google's part. I can see myself being alittle pissed off about it if I was on the receiving end, but that doesn't mean google shouldn't be allowed do it. Alot of intellectual property law is complete bullshit, as alot of us know.
Re:is it infringement? (Score:2, Funny)
What Google did is like accepting money from Ford to hire a goon squad sit outside a GM dealership and beat the shit out of any potential customers.
Their Real problem... (Score:4, Funny)
1. FirePond, Inc. ...
FPX offers the only true multi-tenant configure, price, quote solution featuring our robust product configurator software and unqiue proposal generation
So, what do they sell??
Re:Their Real problem... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Their Real problem... (Score:3, Funny)
I dunno ... perhaps you should check out one of their competitors' ads to find out.