Competitor Bidding on Our Trademark in Google

[epaustx]

We have a registered trademark. We noticed yesterday that a competitor is bidding on our keyword. Is this legal? They are leveraging our good name, diverting our propsects and implying a relationship with us.

Google refuses to get involved (claims it is an innocent 3rd party publisher) but is being sued currently by Rosetta Stone for keyword trademark infringement on Adwords. What about advertisers who infringe on trademarks? They physically have to enter the trademark into their Adword account to get these ads to serve when the trademark is entered. (I am an SEM expert.)

Thanks for reading. Any advise is appreciated.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[divgradcurl]

We have a registered trademark. We noticed yesterday that a competitor is bidding on our keyword. Is this legal? They are leveraging our good name, diverting our propsects and implying a relationship with us.

Google refuses to get involved (claims it is an innocent 3rd party publisher) but is being sued currently by Rosetta Stone for keyword trademark infringement on Adwords. What about advertisers who infringe on trademarks? They physically have to enter the trademark into their Adword account to get these ads to serve when the trademark is entered. (I am an SEM expert.)

Thanks for reading. Any advise is appreciated.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

What country are you in?

 

[epaustx]

We're in Texas (which some consider a country). We got an answer to our question through a legal firm that deals with these Internet/Mark issues. This apparently is a form of "cybersquatting". Although the use of our mark is not being used directly in advertising, it is being used to accomplish the same outcomes. So we have a legal action on our hands.

An interesting sidenote is that Google has multiple lawsuits outstanding for permitting this practice. Its defense is that it is merely the publisher (albeit a publisher making a profit from the practice).

 

[Skyymiles]

We're in Texas (which some consider a country). We got an answer to our question through a legal firm that deals with these Internet/Mark issues. This apparently is a form of "cybersquatting". Although the use of our mark is not being used directly in advertising, it is being used to accomplish the same outcomes. So we have a legal action on our hands.

An interesting sidenote is that Google has multiple lawsuits outstanding for permitting this practice. Its defense is that it is merely the publisher (albeit a publisher making a profit from the practice).

too bad google's big enough to cluster**** any claims private parties pose towards their 'cybersquatting' techniques

 

[pkdenver]

What area of case law would support legal action?

We are also experiencing similar issues with our competitors' using our federally registered trademark in their keyword bids. Can you share the answer you received in regards to what supporting case law there is to go after these people?