Is Buying A Google Ad On Your Competitors' Name A Privacy Violation?
from the only-in-the-world-of-lawyers dept
We've seen tons of lawsuits from companies upset that their competitors were buying ads on their trademarked brand names. Obviously, these tend to be trademark disputes, and the suing companies rarely prevails, since most courts seem to realize that buying ads on competitor trademark keywords is perfectly legal, so long as the ad isn't confusing. But, sometimes the arguments get quite bizarre. JJ sent over an article about two personal injury law firms in a legal fight over Google advertising -- but the (initial) twist here is that the one firm is claiming that it's a violation of Wisconsin state privacy laws to buy keywords based on the names of the partners in the firm. It's difficult to see who's privacy is being violated here. And, of course, to make the case a bit more exciting, the defendants surprised everyone in court by doing a search on YellowPages.com for their own law firm -- and having an ad for the plaintiff show up. So, now the defendants are claiming that the plaintiffs have "unclean hands," since they appear to be doing the exact same thing they've accused the defendants of doing. It sounds like quite a trial...![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
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Sure, why not...
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Who cares?
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Laches
> doing a search on YellowPages.com for their own
> law firm -- and having an ad for the plaintiff
> show up.
I'd love to watch the plaintiff's lawyers try and spin that one.
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I love the smell of litigation in the morning!
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Interesting Argument
Is that worth suing over? Of course not.
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"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers"
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TV?
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auto repair
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I think that it is
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nice
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hm...
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