TopPayingKeywords Announces Trademark Infringement Lawsuit Against Google

May 4, 2005 -- According to TopPayingKeywords Google was recently charged with trademark violations by Geico and American Blinds. The case (C 03-05340 JF US District Court For The Northern District Of California San Jose Division) has gone to the discovery phase of litigation, which means the judges have said there is enough there right now factually to potentially justify these lawsuits. The impact of this trial could be vast for search marketers.

The claims made by Geico and American Blinds are that Google's AdWords program violates the law by allowing competitors to purchase keywords that are protected trademarks. Geico and American Blinds contest that by allowing advertisers to bid on their keyword that is in essence the same thing as selling the Geico or American Blinds name without their authorization.

Trademark law was instituted primarily to protect the consumer. When a customer sees a brand or logo, they associate a certain quality and expectation with that logo. If inferior companies were allowed to use the same logo and have worse products or services, the consumer would not know what to expect. With trademark law the consumer gets a degree of certainty and avoids confusion or unmet expectations.

According to lawyers this litigation could get very complicated. What Google needs to do is convince the court that there is no customer confusion with respect to keywords and how Google serves ads based on search queries. They will establish this most likely by running various consumer surveys. If successful, this would establish a legal precedent preventing future lawsuits of the same nature; however, there is big risk if Google fails. Ninety-five to ninety-nine percent of Google's income is from its advertising model, and a ruling against it could be trouble for the company. If they settle, however, like Overture did then it sets no legal precedence, making it possible for other companies to make the same charges in the future.

According to TopPayingKeywords.com in the coming months something will happen to search marketing. At the very least, Google will have to monitor trademark infringement a bit more vigorously; at the worst the company may lose a part of its revenue.

About TopPayingKeywords.com
TopPayingKeywords.com is designed to help webmasters maximize their profits using Google's Adsense program. Through extensive research, TopPayingKeywords.com develops up-to-date databases of the most popular keywords and their accompanying bid prices. For more information, please visit http://www.toppayingkeywords.com.




TopPayingKeywords Announces Trademark Infringement Lawsuit Against Google



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