Judge Sides With Google Vs. Geico

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Judge Sides With Google Vs. Geico

xcandyman on Wed, 2004-12-15 10:14.

Business Issues

6 comments

Thread Title:
Googe Wins

Thread Url:
http://networks.org/?src=cbs:2004:12:13:tech:main660644

Thread Description:

We can all breathe a sigh of relief !

Google Inc. won a major legal victory Wednesday when a federal judge said the search engine could continue to sell ads triggered by searches using trademarked company names.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema rejected a claim by auto insurance giant Geico Corp., which argued that Google should not be allowed to sell ads to rival insurance companies that appear whenever Geico's name is typed into the Google search box.

Comments

relief

twadmin on Wed, 2004-12-15 11:01.

Im sure many folks feel that XC, thanks for the heads up!

adword trademark bidding

magicdan on Thu, 2004-12-16 14:03.

Does this mean that this puts the rumours about the removal of bidding on trademarks to bed then? Or do you think google will continue with its plans?

I suspect

twadmin on Thu, 2004-12-16 15:28.

that google will continue with that, it does seem all part of their "affiliate death stance" but then i'd like to hear from anyone that has a more informed perspective on this?

twadmin on Thu, 2004-12-16 16:15.

Clickz just put out this piece on trademark issues & google that might help add something to the discussion:

Quote:

Despite a key win in court yesterday against auto insurance giant GEICO, Google's trademark-related legal battles are not yet over, and individual advertisers can still be held accountable for trademark violations in search engine ads.

The best policy

magicdan on Thu, 2004-12-16 16:47.

in my opinion is to continue to police it on a complaints basis. I think that if a complaint is made by a trademark holder then google should investigate and remove ads or ask advertisers to obtain permission from the holder. As we all know, some companies are more than happy to allow their trademarks to be used and thus an all out ban is futile. That article pretty much seals it I suppose as it doesnt set a precedent for all trademark bidding.

Apparently

twadmin on Fri, 2004-12-17 12:39.

Geico are now claiming victory?

Quote:

U.S. District Court judge ruled yesterday that "the use of GEICO trademarks in paid advertisements on Google violates federal trademark law" says GEICO's General Counsel Charles Davies. "That portion of the ruling was pretty much overlooked yesterday.

thanks to sel