Recent Class Action Suits Against Google's AdWords Program: May Affect Buying and Selling of Trademarks as Keywords for Paid Internet Advertising

摘要

Two class action trademark infringement actions were recently filed in federal court against Google and others based on Google's AdWords and Keyword Suggestion Tool programs. It is possible that these filings were sparked by a recent Second Circuit opinion in the Rescuecom v. Google case. The damage claims could potentially amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, should the cases successfully proceed as class actions. It also means that we could see a change in the way trademarks are bought and sold for paid Internet advertising, and the rights of several hundred thousand federally-registered U.S. Trademark owners would be affected.