Turns Out, No, You Can't Sue Google For Putting Ads You Don't Like Near Your Listing

from the in-case-you-were-wondering dept

Thu, Aug 24th 2006 4:01pm — Mike Masnick

Last week we had the story of a Dutch dating site that was suing Google because they didn't like the ads it showed when people searched on their name. The company runs a "farm dating" site, and some of the ads were for "sex sites." The dating site worried it hurt their reputation. If allowed, it seemed like this would open up a huge host of problems as plenty of companies would try to sue Google over the ads it showed near their listings. It seems that a judge agreed, noting that the words "farm" and "date" were way too generic for the site to have any control over them. At least that gets this case out of court, but it really punts on the bigger issue. If the site did have a less generic name, would they have the right to control what kind of ads show up near their listing in the search engine? That would still create a ton of problems, giving an opening to misuse trademarks for anti-competitive purposes, rather than for consumer protection.

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10 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 24 Aug 2006 @ 6:51pm

Isn't there some issue at the moment with Dell using the term "Toshiba Notebook" and "Acer Notebook" as part of their adwords?

Wouldn't surprise me if there were more suits like this.
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Xcetron, 24 Aug 2006 @ 6:59pm

If these sites like to complaint so much, google should just cut them off and remove all their linking. See if they'd like that better.
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dorpus, 24 Aug 2006 @ 7:06pm

Begging of the End
Although the Silicon Valley crowd loves to mock nationalized search engines being built in other countries, what if those other search engines act more socially responsible? Is Google prepared to compete on ethical grounds? No, that is too contrary to the anti-ethics culture of Silicon Valley.
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socrates3001, 24 Aug 2006 @ 7:37pm

Googl Ads
Google does offer some control over the ad content that appears on a person's web Paige. If this measure of control was not enough for the plaintiffs, they could easily switch to several other revenue sources for their site.
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Uh, 24 Aug 2006 @ 8:01pm

I think we're ignoring the real point:
What the hell is a "farm dating" site, and who buys the flowers?
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farmer bob, 24 Aug 2006 @ 8:20pm

Re: I think we're ignoring the real point:
well old bessie gives a good bucket of milk for ya ;)
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jeff, 25 Aug 2006 @ 1:35am

Re: Begging of the End
i think google is very prepared to fight a battle of ethics with any other search engine that's around or may ever come about. i don't want an ethical search engine, and i doubt the vast majority of people who use the internet would want one either. we want relevance, we want our keywords to bring back appropriate results, whether it's knitting or dr. mengele.
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Shohat, 25 Aug 2006 @ 3:10am

I got kicked by adwords
I am forbidden from putting the word " Ipod" in my adword ads , due to google's policy regarding certain trademarks . I am not forbidden from using "warcraft" for instance .
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2006 @ 6:57am

sheep escorts :)
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toufic saleh, 2 May 2009 @ 10:19pm

Can I sue Google for an ad that insult my religion
Can I sue Google for an ad that insult my relgion; and who can handle such a case;

regards,
toufic
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