Links & Law - Information about legal aspects of search engines, linking and framing

Hyperlink & Search Engine Law News  Decisions & Court Documents Worldwide Legal Resources (Hyperlink & Search Engine Law Articles) Linking Law Cases Search Engine Law Publications by Dr. Stephan Ott Technical    Background

American Blind - Google's Ad-Words under attack

American Blind sent Google a letter complaining that it was selling AdWords that infringed on its trademarks. Google places the sponsored links on the right side of of its results page. For example, if someone types ``American Blind & Wallpaper Factory'' into Google's search box, the advertisements of other companies are listed beside the search results, luring users to click on them. American Blind threatened a trademark lawsuit similar to one brought against Google by French handbag seller Louis Vuitton in August (In October a French court ordered Google to cease the practice and pay a fine).

Google asked the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California for declaratory judgment that its AdWords don't infringe on American Blind's trademarks and demanded a jury trial. The complaint filed November 26 states, "Google believes and maintains that descriptive terms (including terms such as 'blind,' 'wallpaper' and 'factory,' which are component parts of American Blind's trademark) are not entitled to any such treatment, and that Google's sale of keyword-triggered advertising does not violate the Lanham Act."

 

 

Newsarchive

The Links & Law website is updated regularily, so  check back for updated information and resources about search engine and linking issues.

You are currently in the archive with older news. A complete list of the updates can be found here!
 

 
 

Masthead/Curriculum Vitae
Copyright © 2002-2008 Dr. Stephan Ott 

All Rights Reserved.

 

Google