American Airlines Sues Google to Protect Trademarks

mauiman · 08-18-2007, 08:57 AM

Google shows ads from competitors when people search using keywords that are company trademarks. American Airlines (AA) is crying foul and has filed a lawsuit to force Google to stop this practice of profiting at it's expense by effectively renting their trademarks to competitors.

This isn't the first time Google has been sued for this, but AA is the largest company to do so and I personally think AA has a case.

In 2005 Geico sued Google for essentially the same thing and a federal judge in Virginia ordered Google to stop allowing competitors to use protected trademarks in their ad copy. Google settled the suit with Geico.

This lawsuit goes after the renting of protected trademarks by Google to competitors regardless of whether the trademark is in the ad copy. Companies spend a fortune to build brand names and to have Google profit from renting these trademark propected names to competitors does strike me as inappropriate at best.

For more info click here: American Airlines Sues Google.

Skinny · 08-18-2007, 10:49 AM

I'd have to agree with you. Bidding on a trademarked keyword and acting as a competitor is probably not the best thing to do.

I think AA does have a case here, because other companies are using their trademark to make money and "steal" customers from AA.

Skinny