Rosetta Stone sued Google for allowing people to big on their name in AdWords. These people were selling counterfeit software, and Rosetta Stone went after Google to stop it.
There is a WebmasterWorld thread now covering the decision. The thread links to a Reuters post which says:
Language software maker Rosetta Stone Inc's trademark infringement lawsuit against Google Inc has been dismissed by a federal judge.Rosetta has vowed to keep pursuing the case which has broad implications for trademark ownership in the digital age.In the suit filed in 2009, Rosetta claimed Google profits by allowing rivals that pirate its technology to buy the top "sponsored link" ad on search results pages.
Consumers who search for "Rosetta Stone" on the popular search engine and click on a "sponsored ad" may be visiting the website of a software pirate that purports to be Rosetta, but in reality sells a sub-standard product, the lawsuit claimed.
As you can imagine, the thread has people arguing both sides. I like this exchange of talk in the thread. One persons said, "Whack-a-mole or not, you can't go after the messenger. You can't sue ABC, because it's less tedious than suing XYZ." Then someone replied "That would obviously depend on one's definition of "messenger"." Don't you just love the law?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
