Press release: Google AdWords Brought on Trial

Suing Google is becoming its own form of marketing. After companies like "Luis Vuitton," France's "Flight Market," insurer AXA and American Blind & Wallpaper Factory all got lots of free publicity suing Google over the use of their trademarks as AdWords, a tiny German company figured it stood to gain by suing for use of its "Preispiraten" trademark, which doesn't appear to be registered in the U.S. The company stands to dump competitors out of the market for the search term - if the spotty legal precedents fall their way - as well as gin up press mentions, as Google's coming IPO put anything to do with the firm up as a hot Internet topic.

Publicity seemed a primary goal when the company's press release phrased its complaint this way: "Google actually published ads for direct competitors concerning metaspinner media's product "www.metaspinner.de" as well as the company's free price comparison software "Preispiraten" which can be downloaded at "www.preispiraten.de" and allows an easy and speedy comparison of prices in several online-auctioneers with those of more than 600 online shops."