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American Blinds Realizes That It Was About To Lose Google Keyword Ad Suit
from the er,-can-we-go-home-now? dept
Just a week or so after American Airlines was the latest in a long list of companies to incorrectly sue Google claiming that Google violated its trademarks in allowing others to buy keyword ads on the trademark "american airlines," one of the more well known cases in this realm has come to a close. American Blinds was one of the more prominent companies who had fighting Google. Again, the complaint was both wrong and misdirected. It's only trademark infringement if the ad would confuse people into believing the ad was from American Blinds when it's not... and even in that case, the fault lies with the advertiser, rather than Google. After years of fighting, it appears that the folks at American Blinds finally realized its chances of winning were close to nil, and have agreed to settle the case, with Google paying absolutely nothing. In other words, American Blinds spent a ton of money in legal costs and ended up with nothing. As Eric Goldberg points out in the link above, some people would have liked a judges ruling that could be used as precedent out of this case -- but even this settlement should hopefully alert other companies not to follow American Airlines down this questionable legal strategy.
