Geico suit against Google reaches court
13 December 2004
The court case between auto insurer Geico and search giant Google is underway in Alexandria, Virginia.
Federal judge Leonie M Brinkema heard opening arguments from both sides on Monday.
Geico, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, sued Google in May for trademark infringement. The insurer claimed that, by allowing competing insurance companies to buy adverts linked to searches for "Geico" and "Geico Direct", Google directed web traffic seeking Geico to its competitors' sites.
Any ruling in the landmark case is likely to face an appeal and the outcome is unclear. If Geico is successful the suit could completely change the way search engines make their money.
Google, the world's most popular search engine, until April prohibited marketers from using other companies' trademarks as keywords if the trademark owner complained. The search engine warned in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in August that possible trademark infringement lawsuits could result following its decision to lift the ban.
Other trademark infringement lawsuits are proceeding against Google, by companies including Rescuecom, a computer-repair company, and American Blind & Wallpaper Factory and there have been similar cases in countries like France and Germany.
"We're well prepared for trial," said Steve Langdon, a spokesman at Google. "Our trademark policy complies with the law and we will vigorously defend against the claims of this suit."
Apply for your free web assessment - get a complete health check and optimisation action plan from Weboptimiser, the experts.
Related news
|
|
Leading brand search engine marketing since 1996
Founded in 1996 as an SEO company, Weboptimiser is today one of the Internet marketing sector's best-known and most respected search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) search engine marketing companies.
With a unique portfolio of brand-friendly services, including usability, contextual advertising and web analytics, a pioneering methodology that covers all 4 stages of interaction between a web site and its visitors, we make our clients sites faster, smarter, busier and more profitable.
