Google will face a jury trial to defend its pay-per-click advertising system, AdWords, against a trademark infringement case filed by US window blinds reseller, American Blind & Wallpaper Factory Inc. This marks the first case against keyword advertising problems ever to face the jury.
According to Reuters, American Blinds complaint argues that Google’s system violates trademark law by allowing competitors of American Blinds to use Google’s system to buy keyword search terms, such as “American Blind,” which trigger ads from rival companies.
“We spend millions of dollars annually to build brand awareness and cannot stand idle while Google allows our competitors to ride our coattails,” said a statement from Steve Katzman, CEO of American Blind.
Expect this legal scuffle to heat up considering the risks involved. Apparently, AdWords constitutes 98% of Google’s $10.6 billion revenue earned in 2006. Jury selection is slated on November 9.
Originally posted on May 12, 2007 @ 3:57 am
The lawyer bill should be impressive! maybe American Blind has someone working on a winner fee basis. I’m sure that Google will be able to pull this one out but sooner or later someone is going to hit the golden lawsuit goose.
When Google loses this or an upcoming trademark lawsuit, they will be impacted, but still very profitable. The majority of Adwords revenue comes from advertising on generic phrases like “window blinds†versus trademarks like “American Blind.â€
Incidentally, some companies decide not to implement the current trademark policy because they may not have a vested interest in a reseller market, this choice should continue to be left to the trademark holder. The auto industry is a good example, and Ford does not implement the trademark policy on the trademarked phrase “used Ford F150″ because they encourage dealerships and aggregators to handle the used vehicle market.