Google has won a trade mark dispute, with a District Court judge
finding that the search engine's sale of sponsored search terms
"Geico" and "Geico Direct" did not breach car insurance firm
GEICO's rights in the trade marked terms.
However, the ruling is only a victory in part for the search
giant. Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia
also ruled that the case would continue over the question of
whether the use of the trade marked terms in the text of sponsored
ads breached GEICO's rights.
GEICO sued both Google and Yahoo! subsidiary Overture in May
this year, and is one of several that have been filed against
Google since it changed its US policy of screening for trade marks
when advertisers select keywords for its popular AdWords
service.
The service works by allowing advertisers to sponsor particular
search terms so that, for a fee, whenever that term is searched the
advertiser's link will appear next to the search results.
Until April, Google had respected requests from companies that
asked it to prevent their marks from being available for
sponsorship. Now, however, Google only takes action when a trade
marked term is used in the text of an ad.
GEICO's case against Google came to trial on Monday, less than
two weeks after GEICO and Overture agreed settlement terms. But
after hearing GEICO's evidence, Google yesterday asked the court to
dismiss the action on the basis that there was no evidence of trade
mark infringement.
Judge Brinkema agreed, in respect of the use of trade marks as
sponsored search terms, finding, according to reports: "There is no
evidence that that activity alone causes confusion."
The case has now been halted, while the judge issues a written
decision on the ruling, but will continue later in respect of the
alleged text-in-ad violations – which Google argues it already has
policies and procedures in place to prevent.
"It confirms that our policy complies with the law, particularly
the use of trade marks as keywords," said David Drummond, vice
president and general counsel at Google. "This is a clear signal to
other litigants that our keyword policy is lawful,"
"GEICO will continue to aggressively enforce its trade mark
rights against purchasers of its trade mark on search engines and
against search engines that continue to sell its trade marks," said
GEICO General Counsel Charles Davies.
As this is only a district court ruling, the verdict will not
necessarily affect the outcomes of other similar cases pending in
the US against Google.
