Welcome to Patents and Trademarks Guide
List Of All Patents Article
. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for further reading, click here.
When Search Engine Marketing and Trademarks Collide
from: Tommy MaricIn the world of marketing, branding issues are always an important part of any campaign. Companies work hard for their name to be recognized as a quality organization and a leader in their field. Companies will defend any action they see as a negative to their brand. They do not want unauthorized third parties to advertise their products, because they may do it in a poor manner which will generate negative consequences for the quality of the company’s brand. Recently, Google was charged with trademark violations by Geico and American Blinds. The cases (C 03-05340 JF US District Court For The Northern District Of California San Jose Division) have gone to the discovery phase of litigation, which means the judges have said there is enough there right now factually to potentially justify these lawsuits. The impact of this trial could be vast for search marketers.
A “trademark” is a word, symbol (i.e., logo) or phrase used to identify a particular product and distinguish it from other products in the marketplace. The degree of distinctiveness or uniqueness is what usually determines legal protection. Terms or symbols that are not unique to a particular product or company are generally not given protection. Generic terms are also not protected. The claims made by Geico and American Blinds are that Google’s AdWords program violates the law by allowing competitors to purchase keywords that are protected trademarks. Geico and American Blinds contest that by allowing advertisers to bid on their keyword that is in essence the same thing as selling the Geico or American Blinds name without their authorization.
Trademark law was instituted primarily to protect the consumer. When a customer sees a brand or logo, they associate a certain quality and expectation with that logo. If inferior companies were allowed to use the same logo and have worse products or services, the consumer would not know what to expect. With trademark law the consumer gets a degree of certainty and avoids confusion or unmet expectations.
According to lawyers this litigation could get very complicated. What Google needs to do is convince the court that there is no customer confusion with respect to keywords and how Google serves ads based on search queries. They will establish this most likely by running various consumer surveys. If successful, this would establish a legal precedent preventing future lawsuits of the same nature; however, there is big risk if Google fails. Ninety-five to ninety-nine percent of Google’s income is from its advertising model, and a ruling against it could be trouble for the company. If they settle, however, like Overture did then it sets no legal precedence, making it possible for other companies to make the same charges in the future.
Whatever the result, it is clear that in the coming months something will happen to search marketing. At the very least, Google will have to monitor trademark infringement a bit more vigorously; at the worst the company may lose a part of its revenue.
About the Author
About The Author:
Tommy Maric is the manager of TopPayingKeywords.com. TopPayingKeywords.com is designed to help webmasters maximize their profits using Google’s Adsense™ program. Through extensive research, TopPayingKeywords.com develops up-to-date databases of the most popular keywords and their accompanying bid prices. For more information, please visit http://www.toppayingkeywords.com>
List Of All Patents News
Patent Infringement In 140 Characters Or Less: The Twitter Way - Forbes
 Forbes | Patent Infringement In 140 Characters Or Less: The Twitter Way Forbes Under our patent law in the United States, applications must be filed in the name of the actual inventor(s). Even someone who only contributes 1% to the overall invention must be listed on the patent as an inventor. If a company doesn't list all of the ... |
Yahoo Interim CEO Explores Settlement In Patent-Infringement Suit; Facebook ... - AllFacebook
 AllFacebook | Yahoo Interim CEO Explores Settlement In Patent-Infringement Suit; Facebook ... AllFacebook Yahoo claims that two of the 10 patents Facebook asserts are unenforceable due to inequitable conduct. But all of these allegations are unsupportable and/or deficient. First, Yahoo claims these patents do not list Joseph Liauw as an inventor, ... Facebook pokes major hole in a Yahoo patent claim Even as Settlement Hopes Appear, Facebook Blames Shoddy Checking in Answer to ... |
Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and FCB I LLC Announce the Issuance of ... - U.S. Politics Today
Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and FCB I LLC Announce the Issuance of ... U.S. Politics Today The newly issued patent, which claims certain pharmaceutical compositions comprising testosterone, is expected to expire in April 2023. Auxilium has also submitted the patent for listing in the Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence ... |
Green Mountain Coffee Patents: Does The World End In 2012? - Seeking Alpha
Green Mountain Coffee Patents: Does The World End In 2012? Seeking Alpha The US Patent and Trademark Office website is the authoritative source for information on patents. As of this writing, if you search the site for all patents assigned to Keurig, you will get a list of 38 issued patents, with the 765 and 189 patents ... |
Star Scientific Announces Patent Claims for Synthesis of Anatabine Granted by ... - U.S. Politics Today
Star Scientific Announces Patent Claims for Synthesis of Anatabine Granted by ... U.S. Politics Today GLEN ALLEN, Va., May 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Star Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ: CIGX) announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office ("PTO") issued a Notice of Allowance on May 11, 2012 to Rock Creek Pharmaceuticals, Inc., its wholly owned subsidiary, ... |
8x8, Inc.: Cloud Communications Acquisition Play - Seeking Alpha
8x8, Inc.: Cloud Communications Acquisition Play Seeking Alpha The company has a portfolio of 79 patents with the USPTO and more patents pending. We believe, due to the current environment in which legacy equipment providers are seeing their business deteriorate rapidly and lose their market share to the cloud, ... |
Singapore Builds Patent Capacity Ahead Of New System - Intellectual Property Watch
Singapore Builds Patent Capacity Ahead Of New System Intellectual Property Watch Moving to what it calls as a “positive grant” patent system from the present “self assessment” type of system tops the list of amendments to Singapore's patent law. In the current system, even patents that do not meet the full patentability criteria ... |