14 DAY TRIAL // An interesting case involving online marketing guru Jeremy Schoemaker and Google employee Keyen Farrell has been settled recently though the exact details are scarce, TechCrunch reports. In the lawsuit, Schoemaker accused Farrell, who was an AdWords account strategist for Google at the time, of bypassing the AdWords policies by using the plaintiff’s trademark in misleading ads. The suit was filed in April, followed by a counter-suit in June, and has now been closed after an agreement between the parties.
AdWords works by serving ads against the search results in Google based on the keywords entered. Certain keywords can be more lucrative than others so there is a bidding system set up, allowing advertisers to buy ad space against certain searches. But there is also the possibility of abuse of the system – for instance using a competitor or a famous brand's name to link to your site – so AdWords has a policy preventing this type of ads as well as extensive filters to automatically reject ads that don't follow the policies.
Such was the case with Schoemaker when he saw his trademark “schoemoney” being used by another site in an ad. It wasn't the first time this happened but, usually, Google would be quick to respond and remove the offending ads. This time though it was different as several attempts to contact both Google and the offending site failed, as did the Cease and Desist letter he had sent.
Finally, Schoemaker was able to get a hold of the owner of the site but he claimed that he wasn't aware that the term was copyrighted or that it was in breach of Google's Terms of Service. Looking deeper into the matter though, Schoemaker was able to find out that the owner of the site was, in fact, a Google employee from New York working on the AdWords program. This prompted him to file a lawsuit against the employee and his father, who subsequently claimed he was the owner of the site.
Farrell proceeded to counter-suit Schoemaker in June but later dropped half of the claims. Now he announces that an agreement was reached though he cannot comment on the details of the settlement.
“A few weeks ago, after originally withdrawing half of their defamation lawsuit against me, the Farrells withdrew the other half and completely abandoned their counter-suit against me. I was then approached about the possibility of accepting a settlement offer in exchange for me dismissing my trademark infringement case against the Farrells. Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to write about the nature of the settlement talks or the amount of money that was offered because the settlement offers that were made required confidentiality,” Schoemaker wrote on his blog.