Sunday, 20 May 2007

Major flaw in Google Adwords could hit company hard

“A federal judge set Nov. 9 as the jury selection date for a trademark infringement lawsuit filed against Google Inc. by American Blind & Wallpaper Factory Inc. The company alleges Google is harming it financially by selling phrases American Blind has trademarked -- like American Blind, and American Blind and Wallpaper Factory -- to competing companies through the AdWords online advertising platform, said David Rammelt, who is a partner at the law firm representing American Blind.

As a result, competitors' ads often appear as the top advertisements on Google's search engine when consumers are searching for American Blind, he said.

The search site operator's AdWords advertising program lets businesses make ads with keywords that appear alongside related search results.” “If ABWF were to be successful and prevent Google making trademark words available to any advertiser, Adwords could become much less attractive to advertisers, and choke off much of Google's revenue stream. According to Google's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Adwords advertising program accounts for more than 98 percent of its $US11 billion annual revenue.”

Holy Moly!

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