Yahoo Sued Over PPC Ads… Internet Marketers Next?
By Anna Johnson on December 2nd, 2008American Airlines has brought an action against Yahoo accusing it of trade mark infringement. Why? Because, not too long ago, when someone searched on ‘American Airlines’, Yahoo allowed ads by other companies to appear in the paid search results.
Hmmm… does that ring in any bells for any pay-per-click (PPC) advertisers? Like… alarm bells?
American Airlines sued Google over the same thing last year. The parties settled, however, so it’s not clear who’s likely to win this one. The Silicon Alley Insider indicates that Yahoo may be fighting a losing battle because of the murkiness of the law regarding concepts of “nominative fair use”, “commercial referential trademark use,” and other such concepts.
But for now, Yahoo ain’t settling, and Internet marketers - specifically those who run pay-per-click campaigns will want to keep a close eye on this case.
Sure, Yahoo has a major incentive to win - the more freedom it has to run PPC ads, the more money it will make.
Internet marketers, however, also have a MAJOR vested interest in the outcome. Whether you tend to side with American Airlines i.e. that not just anyone should be able to run an ad in response to a search phrase incorporating a trade mark… or you side with Yahoo and believe that you should have the freedom to run ads in response to people’s searches, regardless of whether or not those searches include trade marked terms.
Want to know how close to home this is? Consider everyone who runs ads using the name of some Internet marketing guru. What if that guru has obtained a trade mark for his or her name? If the case is decided in American Airlines’ favor then search engines will no longer be allowed to display ads in response to a ‘trade marked’ search phrase other than those of the trade mark holder or its licensees…
Which means – for better or worse - you can say goodbye to all those ads.
And just to clarify - we’re not talking about running ads that necessarily INCLUDE the trade mark in the ad. We’re talking about ads that say ANYTHING, but that have a link to a site that is not owned or affiliated with the trade mark owner.
Trust me – bidding on trade marked terms is rife. In fact, a little test using both Yahoo and Google (localized to Australian results) generated two ads by non-Amazon affiliated Australian bookstores.
Oh, in case you’re wondering why Google didn’t fight American Airlines over the same issue… well, I don’t know… but it may well be that Google was worried that the court would decide in American Airlines’ favor… which would create a legal precedent that it would have to follow in respect of other advertisers…
If only one company has a problem, why rock the boat and potentially lose a hefty chunk of business?
