American Airlines Takes on Google
The proposed settlement failed and now American Airlines has taken legal action against Google (Symbol: GOOG). The lawsuit is based on Google’s sponsored ads.
According to AA, when a search term that’s trademarked by American Airlines is entered into Google, rivals of American Airlines are also shown in the “sponsored links” section.
A Reuters article today said Google feels like it is on solid ground.
“We are confident that our trademark policy strikes a proper balance between trademark owners’ interests and consumer choice,” Google said in a released statement.
While Google has received lawsuits for trademark issues, those lawsuits have mostly come from smaller companies.
In 2005, Google settled with Geico over this same issue. While Google won their case on the merit of their system, they were still liable for damages.
American Airlines filed their lawsuit Thursday Forth Worth’s U.S. District Court. Damages were unspecified.
This feels like petty litigation by AA. I think Google will win: all they are doing is operating a business.
Comment by Jimmy B — September 3, 2007 @ 1:43 pm
It is a great information, If google crating problem for AA it means google is flying high
Comment by payday loans uk — September 12, 2007 @ 11:05 pm
I think that American Airlines is on thin ice with this one.
I can see their complaint, if they PAID for an add, and had competing ads in the same web page. To make such a complaint on a search term….seems like quite a stretch to me.
Comment by Dave Nofmeister — September 26, 2007 @ 9:18 am
thanks for info
Comment by investing — October 2, 2007 @ 5:41 pm
According to my Google is a king in making business. They really have a very good management team which are consistently trying to make Google a #1 in Fortune 500 and this time also they will take on AA.
Comment by stock investment blogger — October 27, 2007 @ 4:07 am
Mr. Martin,
I am a financial advisor in Fort Worth, TX and would love to get a blog set up for my business but was told by my compliance officer that I can’t…is that true and if so how are you able to do it?
Curious!!
Comment by Gordon Rhodes — November 6, 2007 @ 11:23 am
Yeah Google is really king now they are buying every good business over the world
Comment by Alex Swenson — November 8, 2007 @ 5:05 pm
Google wins hands down. This is a no win situation for American Airlines.
Comment by Steven — November 26, 2007 @ 9:30 am
Google wins hands down. American Airlines needed the publicity.
Comment by Steven — November 26, 2007 @ 9:31 am