14 DAY TRIAL // Because Google is one of the most powerful companies on the Internet, it is often attacked by numerous critics and accusations meant to affect the company's image and allow other firms to increase their popularity and funds. Some of the lawsuits are so irrational that are dismissed from the beginning but some of them are attracting the entire media's attention. One of the important cases was filed in 2006 by the KinderStart company, accusing Google of violations of antitrust, free speech, unfair competition and defamation and libel laws as Reuters reported.
KinderStart is a Connecticut company that provides instant access to links about raising children. Today, an US judge decided to dismiss the lawsuit because the KinderStart's attorney didn't explain the way Google affected the company and its profits. In fact, the search giant did a single operation against the company when it decided to remove KinderStart from its search technology.
"The instant case has been intensively litigated for more than eleven months. Under these circumstances, the Court concludes that there is no reasonable likelihood that KinderStart will cure the defects in the SAC [second amended complaint] by further amendment. Accordingly, the motion to dismiss will be granted without leave to amend," Matt Cutts, Google engineer, sustained on his blog.
Although this can represent only good news for the search giant, the company is affected by a huge number of lawsuits filed against numerous products developed by its employees. Take the example of Viacom, the owner of MTV and Comedy Central that decided to sue Google because YouTube published their content without authorization. Viacom demands almost $1 billion in damages although YouTube already removed an important part of the clips published on the page.