Yahoo! Sued Over Google AdWords
Yahoo! Sued Over Google AdWords
by , 9:50 AM EDT, June 16th, 2006
Colorado-based JP Enterprises filed a suit against Internet search service Yahoo! for purchasing AdWord advertising on Google to draw consumers to Yahoo!-based services. JPEnterprises owns the lovecity online dating service, and claims that Yahoo! placed keywords in Google AdWords advertising in an effort to draw consumers to its own online dating services, according to the Denver Post.
HDVE LLC and Spark Networks were also named in the suit.
Google offers a sponsored advertising feature called AdWords. By including appropriate keywords, an advertiser's link appears at the top of a search results page. Even though sponsored links are clearly marked, some users may not realize that they are not regular search results.
Google and Yahoo! are competitors in the Internet search engine market, and competition between the companies has been on the rise. Both have expanded beyond basic search features and offer news, email, and other free services to draw viewers to their sites. Purchasing advertising on a rival's Web site, however, wasn't exactly an expected move.
Both companies own other businesses geared towards enhancing their own services. Google, for example, recently purchased SketchUp, and now offers a free version of the software for personal use and creating Google Earth 3D images. Among its assets, Yahoo! owns online dating services.
As noted by a reader in the comments below, JP Enterprises appears to have taken exception to the fact that "lovecity," "www.lovecity," and "lovecity.com" were all among the AdWords purchased by Yahoo! at Google.
Yahoo! and HDVE LLC were not available for comment. Spark Networks is not commenting on the case.
Observer Comments
This is an outrage! We must act now to legally limit where companies may advertise! We must stifle competition immediately or face losing those companies which have inferior products!
I don't see where this would be illegal. It's up to Google to choose who they wish to do business with. It sounds like Yahoo probably used some other entintity to slip the advertising past Google's staff, but so what. Companies do stuff like that all the time. But hey I'm sure I'm missing some details here, so we'll see what happens.
Maybe I am missing something... What are they suing about?
[edit]
Oh, I'm not missing anything.. The Article is missing key information. Now that I read the linked article, I understand the suit.
QuoteA Colorado company that owns dating website lovecity.com has sued Yahoo, claiming the Internet giant improperly used a trademark domain name to direct consumers looking for lovecity on Google to Yahoo's dating site...
...Yahoo inserted keywords including lovecity, www.lovecity and lovecity.com into its AdWords advertising, according to the suit.
C'mon TMO.. this information would have been very helpful in the original article.
Fri Jun 16, 2006 2:42 pm Subject: Yahoo's so screwed on this
Quotebrett_x wrote:
Maybe I am missing something... What are they suing about?
[edit]
Oh, I'm not missing anything.. The Article is missing key information. Now that I read the linked article, I understand the suit.
QuoteA Colorado company that owns dating website lovecity.com has sued Yahoo, claiming the Internet giant improperly used a trademark domain name to direct consumers looking for lovecity on Google to Yahoo's dating site...
...Yahoo inserted keywords including lovecity, www.lovecity and lovecity.com into its AdWords advertising, according to the suit.
C'mon TMO.. this information would have been very helpful in the original article.
This is such a CLEAR violation, I'll be amazed if someone doesn't get fired.
I remember reading something about a Paint Company that sue Google over a trademark name. The main complaint was that when you type in the trademark name, not only did the trademark name company appear, all its competitors website also appeared. The courts ruled that the trademark was not being infringed on.
The other point is what if yahoo used just the words: Love, City, Website, Com, Dating, and Sex. Whould it still infringe on Love City tradmark? Love, City and website as key word search would produce LoveCity and Yahoo dating service and most likely other dating services. If you say yes, then is Love and City tradmarks of LoveCity.com in which no one can use it.
Very interesting!
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