Last week at Search Engine Land, I covered an Eric Goldman story on Utah trying to pass a bill for the third time, on regulating search ads. In short, the bill finally passed in the Utah House (still needs to be approved by Senate) and it holds search advertisers liable for targeting trademarks as keywords. It does not hold the search companies, i.e. Google, Yahoo and Microsoft liable (that bill failed). To see the bill, click here.
Shorebreak at WebmasterWorld gives a good explanation of the bill:
This bill, sponsored by 1-800-Contacts, prevents search engines from being able to serve competitive ads if someone searches for a branded/trademarked keyword. So, for example, if someone Google's '1-800-Contacts', Google would not be able to serve LensCrafters' ad, even if Lenscrafter didn't include the brand term in their ad copy.
Now, most search companies do not allow the trademarked terms to appear in the ad copy, but do allow bidding on many trademarked terms, as long as they are not in the ad copy. There has been a ton of legal precedent in this area already, so that is why Eric Goldman is surprised it finally passed. He said it "barely made it through due to the fierce last-minute lobbying efforts of 1-800 Contacts."
That being said, some advertisers hate the law and some actually like it. Guess who likes it and who hates it? :)
Many don't believe this law will last, since e-commerce goes over state boundaries and because geo-targeting capabilities are often not 100%.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Update: Eric Goldman updates us once again to let us know that the bill did not pass in the Utah Senate. He said the bill "died quietly last night when the Utah Senate failed to act on it before the Utah Legislature adjourned for the year."
