Legal Issues

Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
ads, adwords, liability, trademark

Companies:
google, rescuecom





Rescuecom Declares Victory... In Dropping Its Lawsuit Against Google

from the some-victory dept

We've covered some of Rescuecom's bizarre lawsuit against Google for selling Adwords based on Rescuecom's trademarks. The lawsuit has been going on for a while, without Rescuecom getting very far. At almost every turn it was pointed out that what was happening was not trademark infringement. Finally, after many years, Rescuecom has given up and dropped the case... but in the process it's declaring "victory" in the lawsuit. Seriously. The explanation for the "victory"? That Google now lets trademark holders remove trademarks from the "keyword suggestion" tool. Only problem? Google enabled this in 2005.

Basically, the more likely story is that Rescuecom knew it was going to lose and just gave up and declared victory.

Oh, and also, just a few months ago, we noted that Rescuecom was on the other side of nearly an identical lawsuit, in which it was buying ads on Best Buy trademarks (hypocrisy much?). Being involved in two lawsuits at the same time where you're making totally contradicting arguments isn't likely to end well. So it seems likely that given the two lawsuits, and the likelihood of losing the Google one, Rescuecom threw in the towel on that one and then pretended it "won" for the sake of a press release. Based on that logic, can we declare "victory" in our decision not to sue Rescuecom for insulting our intelligence?

6 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments (rss)

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  1.  
    identicon Anonymous Coward, Mar 9th, 2010 @ 8:13pm

    Being involved in two lawsuits at the same time we're you're making totally contradicting arguments isn't likely to end well.

    . . . at the same time we are you are making . . .

    Should it be, "same time where you're making"?

    (reply to this) (link to this) (view in thread)

  2.  

    Re:

    identicon Anonymous Coward, Mar 9th, 2010 @ 8:59pm

    maybe he's trying to make a funny about being on opposite sides? or something?

    (reply to this) (link to this) (view in thread)

  3.  

    Re: Re: Typo

    identicon Anonymous Coward, Mar 9th, 2010 @ 9:36pm

    Saying "typo" might set off an alert. *shrug*

    (reply to this) (link to this) (view in thread)

  4.  

    Re:

    icon Mike Masnick (profile), Mar 9th, 2010 @ 11:33pm

    Oops. Typo. Fixed.

    (reply to this) (link to this) (view in thread)

  5.  
    identicon Anonymous Coward, Mar 10th, 2010 @ 5:19am

    I was thinking about filing a lawsuit against Techdirt, but cant remember why....anyway....VICTORY!!

    (reply to this) (link to this) (view in thread)

  6.  
    icon weneedhelp (profile), Mar 10th, 2010 @ 8:47am

    Mission accomplished.

    (reply to this) (link to this) (view in thread)

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