A federal judge has set a date to begin jury selection in a trial that questions Google's right to sell trademarks as keywords for delivering pay-per-click search ads.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogle has slated Nov. 9 as the start date for hearing the suit filed in January 2004 by American Blind & Wallpaper Factory, a Plymouth MI-based online vendor of window blinds and other home décor products.
In its suit, the company complained that Google was infringing on its right to trademark protection by allowing competitors to use its name and other marks to trigger paid search ads. As a result, American Blind maintains, searchers looking for the company on Google are being drawn off through ads placed by rivals using its trademarks.
Google lets advertisers bid on trademarked keywords for serving search ads but does not permit the use of those words in the headlines or body of the ad text. Yahoo! does not let search marketers big on trademarked keywords.
Late last month Judge Fogle refused Google's request to dismiss the case, explaining that the tremendous popularity of Google search among users and search ads among advertisers suggests that "a significant public interest exists in determining whether the AdWords program violates trademark law."
In that decision, Judge Fogle also ruled that the terms "American Blinds" and "American Blind" are descriptive and without secondary meaning, and that American Blinds thus has no trademark rights over them. He let stand the complaint over other terms, including "American Blind Factory", "American Blind & Wallpaper Factory", and "Decoratetoday".
Once it begins, the November trial reportedly may take up to two weeks to conclude.
