Google Faces Some Trademark Battles. First, PC World reports on a lawsuit filed by American Blind & Wallpaper Factory suit in federal court for the Northern District of New York against Google, claiming that Google's practice of selling keyword-based advertising to competitors violates American Blind's trademarks. Specifically, American Blind contends that Google users searching "American Blind" will be directed to a results page that provides advertising from American Blind's competitors. Google has filed its own suit in the Northern District of California, arguing that American and Blind are not entitled to trademark protection. American Blind has filed for an injunction to stop Google's keyword-based advertising.
In other less lofty Google trademark debates, Google has demanded that the owners of a new adult website search engine called "Booble" take down their website. Martin Schwimmer's trademark blog is following the debate and Mr. Schwimmer has been quoted in this article in internews.com discussing the merits of the parties' claims. Booble claims that their site is a parody (which Google disputes) and has apparently had over a million hits per day since Google sent the demand letter. See this article in the New York Times for discussion of the website dispute and Google's role in Booble's popularity.
Posted by franchiselawblog at February 3, 2004 11:43 AM