John Battelle reports that the judge in the Geico-Google case denied Google's motion to dismiss the suit for lack of merit. Such motions are standard practice and often not expected to be granted. Geico sued Google in an effort to prevent the search firm from using its brand name as an ad targeting criterion - a prohibition that would seriously damage Google's business model. Most intellectual property experts expect Geico to have a tough argument in trial, as trademarks are mainly designed to prevent consumer confusion - something that isn't normally happening when relevant ads are targeted at brand name keyword searchers.