EFF Backs Google in Trademark Case
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has criticized some of Google’s online policies, last week filed a court brief supporting the search engine’s practice of allowing marketers to use rivals’ trademarks as keywords to trigger paid ads.
The EFF said in its filing that Google’s selling of trademarked keywords is not infringement but in fact promotes “a vibrant public sphere by helping online speakers reach a broader audience.”
“The Internet has brought together speakers of many kinds — some competing with trademark owners, others criticizing them, still others simply referring to them while discussing other subject or products,” EFF staff attorney Corynne McSherry said in a release. “Services like Google’s ‘sponsored links’ help people with something to say reach those who might be interested in hearing it.”
The EFF filing came in a case currently on appeal in the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, where computer data recovery company Rescuecom is hoping to have its 2005 lawsuit against Google reinstated after seeing it dismissed by a lower court last year. Rescuecom argued, in part, that by selling ad space to competitors on its trade name, Google was preventing Internet searchers from reaching its Web site and trading illegitimately on its goodwill.
The judge in that case ruled that Rescuecom had no case because Google hadn’t used its name in any way that was visible to the public. Google permits advertisers to bid on trademarked terms such as company names as delivery triggers for pay-per-click ads. However, marketers are not permitted to use the trademarks in either the headlines or the body of their text ads.
A U.S. District Court in California is currently deciding whether or not to dismiss another long-standing trademark keyword suit against Google, by American Blind & Wallpaper Factory.
EFF has in the past been critical of what it sees as flaws in Google’s protection of consumer data. Just over a year ago, it issued a warning that aspects of Google Desktop Search constitute a “one-stop-shop for hackers”.
