Google’s AdWords Trademark Suit Reaches Appeals Court

This is a very interesting case. For my fashion and entertainment entrepreneur readers,  pay attention to the hypothetical. Intriguing innit? For an overview on Trademark Law and infringement suits, click here.

“Over the years, Google has been sued more than a dozen times by trademark owners over Google’s policy of allowing rivals to the trademark owners to buy their keywords and then use those words to advertise against them. To take a hypothetical example: Pepsi could buy the keyword “Coke” in AdWords, and then anyone who searched for “Coke” would see an ad that said: “Buy Pepsi.” In these cases, the plaintiffs have argued that Google infringed their trademark.

While Google has settled a few of those cases, none has compelled the company to stop selling ads based on trademarked keywords—and Google has not lost any of the trademark cases in court. In fact—despite the likelihood of additional litigation—Google has expanded its policy of selling trademarked keywords to Europe, arguing that it produces competitive ads that better serve consumers.

Now, language-learning software company Rosetta Stone, one of the companies that sued Google for trademark infringement and lost, has appealed the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. The company filed suit against Google back in 2007 and lost in August.” The Full Story on PaidContent.Org.