14 DAY TRIAL // American Blind & Wallpaper Factory sued Google after the company considered that AdWords, the search giant's advertising platform, allowed other firms to buy adverts displayed when a user searches for their business. Google appealed the complaint, sustaining the product didn't infringe the US trademark law but a judge decided today to move the case forward. According to Reuters, the judge mentioned that users must know if the advertising platform infringes the US trademark law so the case will be moved forward to the court.
"The large number of businesses and users affected by Google's AdWords program indicates that a significant public interest exists in determining whether the AdWords program violates trademark law," Fogel wrote in his decision, Reuters reported. "Judge Fogel rightfully concluded that they did not prove that two of their marks are protectable, and we are confident that they will be unable to prove their remaining claims at trial," Michael Kwun, Google's litigation counsel replied according to the same publication.
In the recent period, Google is attacked from all around the world with lawsuits, more or less promoted that are accusing the search giant for numerous matters. This complaint sustains Google infringed the US trademark law while a huge number of firms brought the search giant to the judge for copyright infringement. As you know, Viacom, the owner of MTV and Comedy Central, sued Google for publishing its videos without authorization, requiring $1 billion in damages. Although Google agreed to remove 100.000 Viacom clips from the page, the MTV owner filed a complaint against the search giant for copyright infringement.
This is the first time when AdWords causes headaches for the search giant because the advertising platform brought only good things and praises to the parent company. At this time, Google is struggling to expand AdWords to the offline media, signing several deals with newspapers, radio stations or TV channels.