Internet Marketing Guru Sues ‘Keyword Squatter’
By Anna Johnson on April 9th, 2009Online marketing ‘guru’ Jeremy Schoemaker, who provides Internet marketing articles and resources via his Shoemoney.com website, has filed a lawsuit against Keyen Farrell, a Google Adwords account specialist.
It’s alleged that Farrell ran advertisements on Google Adwords that included the keyword ‘Shoemoney’ in the ad text and sent traffic to a website located at www.myincentivewebsite.com
Jeremy Schoemaker’s company ShoeMoney Media Group owns the ‘shoemoney’ trademark and Google’s Adwords terms of service prohibit advertisers from displaying trademarked terms in their ad text. If the case is proved, Farrell may end up liable for a considerable amount of damages…
This is not the first time an ‘Internet marketing guru’ has complained about people using their name in pay-per-click ads. And the practice seems to be rife in the Internet marketing niche. Just type a well-known marketer’s name into Google and you’ll likely see a ton of ads along the lines of ‘Name Review’, ‘Name Sucks’ or ‘Name Scam’.
Not only are some of these ads disparaging and possibly defamatory but they may also infringe the given guru’s trademark (if they’ve trademarked the term in question).
And while some affiliates may be using an Internet marketing guru’s name in order to sell that guru’s products (which may or may not be allowed under the guru’s affiliate terms)… some are not.
At least some of those marketers are using gurus’ names in order to generate traffic to ‘review’ websites where they end up recommending OTHER, competitive products.
It’s all just a bit too shady for my liking and it seems that Jeremy Schoemaker, for one, is doing something about it.
Let this be a warning to everyone who displays trademarked terms in their paid search ads without permission: you might get sued!
Source: Jeremy Schoemaker, “ShoeMoney Media Group Vs Keyen Farrell,” Shoemoney.com, April 8, 2009
