AdWords case goes against Google
16 August 2005
Google has lost a trademark case in the United States over its sale of the terms ‘Geico’ and ‘Geico Direct’.
A US district court judge found that Google had infringed car insurance firm Geico’s trademark when the terms were used in the text of sponsored ads through its keyword advertising service, AdWords.
The case could have serious implications for the search industry, as keyword advertising forms a large chunk of many search engines' profits.
Geico, a component of Berkshire Hathaway, sued both Google and Yahoo! subsidiary Overture in May 2004 after its trademarks were sold as sponsored search terms by both search engines, The Register reports. Overture settled with the insurer in December, but Google took the case to court and expected win after a judge granted a summary judgement in its favour in December 2004.
Google changed its AdWords policy in April 2004, so that it now only responds to requests from companies about trademarks being available for sponsorship when a trademarked term is used in the text of an ad.
Judge Brinkeman ruled that Geico had “established a likelihood of confusion” and that there had been a breach of the insurance firm’s trademark rights “with regard to those sponsored links that use Geico's trademarks in their headings or text”.
Geico and Google have now been ordered to try and reach a settlement.
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