Google AdWords faces Jury Trial in Trademark Lawsuit

[mandy]

Google will face another trade mark law suit over its AdWords system after a judge refused Google's request that the case be thrown out of court. The issue will be tried before a jury for the first time.

Google has already won suits over its ad system, which allows companies to buy the right to display their advert when a certain term is searched for. The new case will be the first to be heard before a jury, according to the lawyers acting against Google...

American Blind & Wallpaper Factory (ABWF), the US's biggest reseller of window blinds, has sued Google for abuse of trade marks because of rivals' right to buy adverts when web users search for its name...

full article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/21/...mark_case/

[mandy]

AdWords sued again:

Yet another trademark owner has gone to war over Google's keyword advertising. But this time it's a name everyone knows: American Airlines.

Yesterday, the world's largest airline slapped a federal suit on the world's largest search engine, claiming that Google's cash-cow of an ad system infringes on American's rather extensive trademark portfolio.

Google is to blame, the suit argues, because it allows third-party businesses to piggy-back their ads on search engine keywords that violate American Airlines trademarks - like "American Airlines," "AA," and "A A."...

full article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/17/...es_google/

[Kristijntje]

Update on the American Blind lawsuit:

With a November trial date looming, Google Inc. and American Blind & Wallpaper Factory Inc. have settled their trademark infringement dispute.

In a two-page settlement document filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose, both sides agree that American Blind’s claims against Google would be dismissed and that each side will pay their own legal fees...

American Blind decided to settle the suit for economic reasons. “Even though American Blind has prevailed on Google’s repeated attempts to get ABWF’s claims dismissed as a matter of law and was going to be the first trademark owner to get these issues to a jury trial, ABWF made the business decision to put its time and money into its business rather than into completing this case,”...

full article: http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=23642