CNET: Geico sues Google, Overture over trademarks

Easily confused

Geico joined the trademark lawsuit brigade against search engine companies, suing both Overture and Google for allowing advertisers to purchase media pinned to keywords that involve its trademarks. Geico claimed the practice violates the Lanham Act, which implies they believe visitors could be confused as to whether or not the paid ads were somehow sanctioned by the insurer.

Overture has special criteria it uses to evaluate the use of trademarked terms. A policy posted on its site states that "in cases in which an advertiser has bid on a term that may be the trademark of another, Overture allows the bids only if the advertiser presents content on its Web site that (a) refers to the trademark…without creating a likelihood of consumer confusion…or (b) uses the term in a generic or merely descriptive manner." But this policy proved little protection from being sued.

Google, as recently as a couple months ago, had its own evaluative policy, but decided to open up trademarked terms generally, as it believed there was no real consumer confusion and having a policy afforded little protection from litigious trademark holders.