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News Not All Good For Google ' Or Its Advertisers

By Melissa L. Klipp
June 28, 2005

“Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you always should.” Never has that saying had more meaning than when it comes to Internet advertising. True, this new avenue for advertising has helped some companies exponentially increase their business, but the methods for “re-directing” prospective customers have come under great scrutiny by the courts in the last 6 months. Recent decisions warn that keyword advertising through paid placements such as “Sponsored” or “Featured” ads could lead you directly to the defendant's table in federal court.

Internet search engines (such as Google, Yahoo! and Excite) operate by enabling users to locate Web sites containing specific search terms ' most often brand names. Within seconds, users are presented with lists of sites containing that term ' the “Hit List”. Links to the Web sites ordinarily appear in order of decreasing relevance, meaning it's likely that only the top few sites on the Hit List will be visited by the user.

In the early ' and less sophisticated ' days of Internet advertising, sites appearing at the top of the Hit List generally contained the “searched” term in the content of the Web site, as well as the site's domain name. As the marketplace became more competitive, many advertisers seeking “extra” search engine attention adopted competitors' trademarks as domain names, and also hid the marks within the invisible text of their sites. This method has been prohibited by legislation, the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. '1125(d), and by case law from numerous circuits.

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