Google Faces AdWords Setback

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

04 April 2005

Ruling last week in a trademark infringement dispute between Google and the American Blind & Wallpaper Factory, US District Judge Jeremy Fogel denied the online search portal's motion to dismiss the case against it.

In December of 2003, Google sought a declaratory judgement on whether its keyword advertising service was legal following a threat from American Blind to take legal action over the use of keyword advertising which, the firm claimed, violated its trademark.

Google filed a pre-emptive complaint with the US District Court in California, explaining that:

"An actual, present and justiciable controversy has arisen between Google and American Blind concerning Google's right to sell keyword-triggered advertising to its customers. Google seeks declaratory judgement from this court that its current policy regarding the sale of keyword-triggered advertising does not constitute trademark infringement."

American Blind then countersued.

Although when the concerns were first raised with Google by American Blind, the search firm agreed to stop rivals from using the interior design firm's trademarks to trigger their advertisements. However, Google failed to block variant terms such as "American blind" and "American wallpaper", arguing that they were descriptive terms which other advertisers should be allowed to use.

The online search firm is currently facing several similar fights in the United States and overseas.

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