Another Google Lawsuit Moves Forward
from the contractual-terms... dept
Google's lawyers seem awfully busy these days. The latest is with a lawsuit that was filed last year accusing Google of misusing a technology they had licensed. The technology in question helped Google pinpoint where surfers were located physically. They had licensed the technology for AdWords ads, to provide more locally targeted ads... but the contract apparently wasn't worded clearly. When Google started offering AdSense ads on other sites, they kept using the technology, assuming it was covered by the license agreement. Perhaps they should have asked first. The company, Digital Envoy, obviously sensing an opportunity to upsell and get more money out of the search giant, says that using the technology on other sites constitutes: 'sharing,' 'distributing,' or 'otherwise making available,' the technology -- which is forbidden by the contract. Still, Google may have the stronger case here -- as the technology is still served off their own servers, and the other sites have no control over it whatsoever. However, the court found that there wasn't enough evidence to give a summary judgment in favor of Google, and the case will now go to trial, unless some sort of settlement is worked out first.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Intersesting lawsuit, but not significant compared to mine.
I filed an objection to the Google v. Authors Guild settlement and will appeal any settlement allowed to be granted there.
Short list of tortuous actions.
1. "Copy-right" claim.
2. Selling AdWords for keywords displayed on fraudulent websites licensed to AdSense for Domains.
3. Defamation due to displaying my pornography to children, Muslims, and Atheist, while claiming my specific approval of this. One child was my own.
4. Scanning my pornography that was in a book in a library in New York and republishing it without my permission.
5. Profiting from Cybersquatting or US Title 15 1125(d) violations.
I have asked for establishing a not-for-profit search engine.
------Game over
Money is already not an object for me in this suit.
Very few litigation cases are about principle and this is as close as I can get.
I have asked that the FCC be required to regulate communications by signals transmitted by wire. This is NOT a novel idea since it has been their mission since 1936 or the day the FCC was created.
------Game over
[ link to this | view in chronology ]