Overture settles trademark dispute with Geico
3 December 2004
Overture Services has settled a trademark infringement lawsuit brought by insurer Geico.
The Government Employees Insurance Co (Geico) filed a federal lawsuit in May, accusing Overture and search engine Google of damaging its trademark by letting other advertisers bid on its trademarked terms in search ad.
Overture, the paid inclusion division of Yahoo!, and Google attempted to have the trademark infringement claims dismissed, but a judge in August turned down the application and allowed the case to proceed.
Both Overture and Geico have confirmed the settlement, but have refused to disclose details of the deal. The settlement will reportedly not require Overture to change any of its business practices.
"Geico and Overture have agreed to a settlement and their claims against each other in the litigation have been dismissed as a result of that agreement," Geico said in a statement.
Search-based adverts account for a significant portion of revenues for both Google and Yahoo!, but the process had come under fire because advertisers can bid on keywords that may also be trademarked terms, such as product or company names.
In another high-profile case in the United States, Google is battling a trademark infringement lawsuit from the American Blind and Wallpaper Factory. Other similar cases are pending in the France, Germany, and Italy. Geico's case against Google is still scheduled to go to trial on December 13th.
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