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The Work
May 28, 2009 12:01 PM
Law Firm Attacks Google's Ad Policies--As a Plaintiff
Posted by Zach Lowe
More and more companies are objecting to Google's practice of allowing competitors to buy ads that display when a user types a company's name into Google's Web browser, but a Connecticut law firm is the first law firm we know of to actually sue Google over the practice.
The firm Stratton Faxon filed suit against Google in state trial court in New Haven after realizing that a search for its name in Google and Google News brought up not only the firm's Web site but also an ad for a competitor, the Stamford-based firm Silver, Golub & Teitell, according to the Connecticut Law Journal, an Am Law Daily sibling publication.
Name partner Michael Stratton called Google's practice of selling such ads to competitors "damned deceptive." Silver Golub told the law journal the firm was unaware that its marketing company had purchased the Stratton Faxon keyword for advertising purposes.
The Stratton suit follows on the heels of the first class action against Google for selling trademark names to competitors in its lucrative Adwords business. FirePond, a Texas-based company, filed the would-be class action in federal court after an executive searched under the company's name and saw a competitor ad, according to the New York Times. The suit accuses Google of infringing on trademarks in its ad sales process.
Tech experts, including Eric Goldman of Santa Clara University School of Law, are skeptical about the chances the Texas suit has of actually winning class action status. Trademark infringement claims are typically too individualized to merit class action status, Goldman wrote recently on his Technology & Marketing Law Blog.
The Stratton suit seeks $50,000 in damages and an injunction preventing Google from selling law firm names as part of its Adwords business in Connecticut.
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