US-based software company Gator.com has gone to court over
allegations made against it by the Interactive Advertising Bureau
(IAB) that Gator.com’s pop-up advertisement software, which masks
the ads on other web sites, is anti-competitive.
Gator.com offers a free software download that is intended as a
“companion” to web surfing. Its main function is to recognise and
automatically complete registration forms on web sites. However,
Gator.com makes its money from selling ads. When users of the
software are looking at web sites, ads of Gator.com’s sponsors
pop-up over the top of the existing banner ads on a site.
Gator.com’s lawsuit asks a San Francisco federal district court
to declare that it is not participating in any illegal activity
through its use of the pop-up ads. It is also seeking punitive
damages against the IAB for “libellously disparaging its service”
and causing the company to lose sales.
In response to Gator.com’s lawsuit, the IAB has issued a
statement claiming that: “the unfair business practices of
Gator.com substantially infringe on the trade mark, copyright, and
intellectual property rights of web publishers and advertisers, and
do not adequately protect consumers from unauthorised content”. The
IAB added that it “intends to immediately pursue options on behalf
of its members with the appropriate federal agencies”.
