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 Google may have to reveal AdWord secrets

In 2002,  Sport Court sued Rhino for trademark infringement, and a year later, Rhino agreed to an injunction restricting it from using the "Sport Court" trademark "on or in connection with the Internet. Then, in early May 2007, Sport Court accused Rhino of violating the injunction, claiming that the company had purchased the "sport court" keyword phrase on Google AdWords.

But Rhino had merely purchased the "broad match" terms "court" and "basketball court," not the specific term "sport court." So the court rejected plaintiff's claim, but he has now issued a subpoena to Google, requesting information on "all purchases of 'sport court' as a keyword," "associated cost per click calculations," "estimated ad positions for the keyword," and "search volume trends for the keyword." That includes information about Sport Court's AdWords account as well as the accounts of other businesses.

Google has sent out a warning letter to an undisclosed number of its advertisers to inform them of the civil subpoena it received, and given them until July 19th to respond. If those advertisers do not formally object, Google may give over their ad data to legal authorities. The letter was posted on the Technology and Marketing Law Blog.

The subpoena

 

 

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