Oct 25th, 2008 | AdWords, Internet Abuse, Yahoo | No Comments
American Airlines Sues Yahoo Over Trademark Sponsored Ad-Word Violation
The second suit in the year, American Airlines sues Yahoo! this time over alleged trademark violation through its Ad-Word program.
The program allows its advertisers to buy keywords and display Ads in the sponsored listing on the search engine.
American Airlines had sued Google earlier this year which was settled by the company.
The airline company alleged that advertisers are purchasing “American Airlines” as a keyword to display their Ads on the sponsored listing encashing the goodwill of the company’s reputation of the mark. The company also alleged that the advertisers are driving away traffic that is intended to be for American airlines website.
Technorati Tags: sponsored ads trademark infringement lawsuit
May 17th, 2007 | AdWords | No Comments
VIOLATION OF TRADEMARK LAW
Google to face AdWords jury trial. Google will face trial over its ‘AdWords program, following allegations that the system represents an abuse of US trademark law.
A Federal judge has set 9 November as the date for jury selection in an historic trademark infringement lawsuit brought on behalf of American Blind & Wallpaper Factory (ABWF)alleging that Google violated trademark laws by allowing competitors of ABWF to buy advertisements tied to keyword web searches using ABWF’s trademarks.
In an April decision denying Google’s motion to dismiss the case, the court ruled that the “evidence suggests that Google used [ABWF's] mark with the intent to maximise its own profit [and] ABWF has produced sufficient evidence of likelihood of [consumer] confusion [to allow the case to be decided by a jury]“.
Under the pay-per-click AdWords system, related advertisements appear on a page of search results. This means that if a user searches, for example McDonald’s, an advertisement for Burger King or another rival may appear next to the results. The case could have a significant impact on Google. According to the search giant’s filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, AdWords accounts for more than 98 per cent of Google’s $11bn annual revenue.
Kelley Drye & Warren, the law firm representing ABWF, and its lead attorney David Rammelt, said: “The downside of search optimisation based on use of trademarks is rarely discussed. The reality is that companies large and small are hurt when Google uses a company’s trademark, without permission, for the benefit of the company’s competitors and Google.
“This is the first time that a jury will have the chance to hear how Google’s business model takes advantage of companies that have built the value of their trademarks through hard work and investment.”
