Poor Yahoo. As we all know, the company's facing quite a few problems - a shrinking stock price, a skeptical Department of Justice, and so on - and now it's been made the defendant in a trademark infringement case filed by American Airlines.
The use of competitor keywords had American flying into the courtroom, but both sides taxied out with a quiet and confidential settlement.
Just as advertisers in the United States may bid on trademarks as keywords to trigger ads, AdWords clients in the UK and Ireland will be able to do the same thing starting next month.
The issue of whether bidding on a competitor's trademark keyword for search advertising constitutes "use in commerce" isn't one that is settled yet, and may not be settled for some time. That's not going to stop the lawsuits, though.Or seemingly duplicitous behavior.There have been several Second Circuit court rulings that it's okay to bid on your competitor's keyword in search advertising and that it does not constitute use in commerce.
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