Google Case Ruling Hurts Geico
By Matt Brady, Washington Bureau
NU Online News Service, Dec. 15, 2:42 p.m. EST, Alexandria, Va.?In a blow to Geico's efforts to stop competing insurance operations from attaching themselves to Internet searches for the Geico brand name, a federal judge threw out key elements of the company's trademark suit against Google today.[@@]
U.S. District Court Judge Leonie M. Brinkema in Alexandria, Va., ruled that the insurer had not presented sufficient evidence to support an injunction that would bar the search engine from including "sponsored links" in which other companies can bid to have links to their products included with results of searches using various keywords?in this case the terms Geico or Geico Direct.
Judge Brinkema, who is hearing the case without a jury, ruled that as a matter of law Geico had not shown that inclusion of the "sponsored links" with search results causes consumer confusion, a key claim by the insurer.
"There is no evidence that that activity alone causes confusion," Judge Brinkema said.
Google's attorney, Michael Page, estimated that the judge's ruling effectively threw out "90 percent" of the GEICO's complaint. "The real issue," he said, was whether Google's policy of including the "sponsored links" is a violation of federal law. Judge Brinkema, he added, "just said that it didn't."
David Drummond, vice president and general counsel for Google, said the company was "very pleased" with the ruling.
It confirms that our policy complies with the law, particularly the use of trademarks as keywords," Mr. Drummond said. "This is a clear signal to other litigants that our keyword policy is lawful."
The ruling was made on a motion by Google asking the judge to decide if Geico had made a sufficient case that damage had been incurred to continue with the lawsuit.
Judge Brinkema did find merit in part of the lawsuit, and will continue the trial to determine Google's liability for instances in which sponsored links made use of Geico's name in either the text or title of the link, which both sides acknowledged would be in violation of Google's copyright policies.
The next phase of the trial will commence after the holiday season, giving the judge time to issue a detailed, written version of her ruling and for the two sides to further discuss a possible settlement.
"The judge's ruling gave Google part of what they were seeking, and it gave us part of what we were seeking," said Geico's attorney, Charles D. Ossola of the firm of Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Ossola said that Geico was seeking damages of $8.65 million for the remaining parts of the lawsuit. He declined to comment whether Judge Brinkema's ruling would increase the likelihood of a settlement, saying only that "discussions have continued throughout" the process.
The ruling represents a substantial victory for Google, which has suffered setbacks in European courts on copyright issues. The company was forced to change its practices in France due to a lawsuit by Louis Vuitton over trademark issues, and has also received an unfavorable ruling in Germany.
Just prior to the beginning of the trial, Geico reached an out of court settlement with Yahoo Inc. Yahoo also has sponsored links on its searches, but does not allow companies to bid on the names of their rivals.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.