Indian Company Sues Google For Showing Competitors Ads... Even Though It Places Ads On Competitors Too
from the what's-good-for-us... dept
There have been plenty of misguided lawsuits against Google, when someone gets upset and realizes that competitors are buying AdWords on their name or other trademarks. But, of course, that shouldn't be a trademark violation (unless the resulting ad is confusing). It's just well-placed marketing. Furthermore, even if it is trademark infringement, it shouldn't be Google's liability, but the party who bought and created the ad. However, the lawsuits still keep coming -- with the latest one being in India. But what makes this one special is that the complaining company seems to be buying those types of ads itself. So while it's complaining that competitors' ads show up on searches for its own name, it had no problem buying ads on competitors' names. Why not just try competing by offering a better service, rather than worrying about how competitors advertise?
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Filed Under: ads, adwords, competitors, india, trademark
Companies: google
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TOS
DONE!!!
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Not unusual....
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One thing does seem fairly certain. If the plaintiff is engaging in such conduct its marketing people will not have a very pleasant experience next time they meet with the CEO.
Merely a personal opinion, while ad words as implemented are likely not a violation of trademark law, and also not likely a violation of unfair competition law (I am assuming, of course, a congruence between the law of India and that of the US, which may be totally off the mark), it is a bit unseemly to engage in this type of activity. If you need to play off your competitors' trademarks to generate recognition for your trademarks and goods/services, it suggests to me that you are not doing a particularly good job promoting your business to the consuming public.
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'Consim's trademarks also often appear in links from competitors that are served on a Google search, Janakiraman said.'
So, apparently, the article DOES definitively so state.
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Really? Wouldn't the smartest place to market and advertise be where people are looking for products like yours?
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