Google informed me that they banned showing AdSense from my account on Google.blogoscoped.cn (a site which I don’t run, but they are nice enough to rotate my AdSense code every couple of times as they’re translating posts from here).

Do domainers know where to draw the line? “There is no question that the TM laws and how they are applied online are NOT consistent with the decision making for offline enterprise.

A fifth federal court has declared that keyword advertisements and use in website metatags are not considered "use in commerce," providing a bigger shield for those that would use competitor keywords in their campaign.

Independent International Investment Research (IIIR) is near to a settlement with Google regarding its claim to the Gmail trademark in the United States, according to a request for extension filed by IIIR at the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Greg Lastowka is an Associate Professor of Law at the Rutgers School of Law, Camden, and he finished a (draft) paper titled Google’s Law [PDF], which he says is a discussion of trademark law matters and the suits against Google for its AdWords practices (with some general Google history thrown in). Greg wraps it up for us: 

Pick whichever cliché you like: what goes around comes around; you catch more flies with honey; adding insult to injury; cutting off your nose to spite your face; his butt would make Harold a Sunday face. They all could apply here – maybe not that last one; just something my grandfather used to say.

There is little doubt that patents are driving innovation. However, those same patents can hinder the progress if applied incorrectly.

Google’s trademark lawyers are gearing up to take on a new foe in the intellectual property arena: JewTube. No, that’s not a typo.

Only one week has passed since NBC / News Corp announced the name of their online video project – Hulu.
And it was TechCrunch that made us all laugh when they ironically translated Hulu into Swahili – meaning, among other things, “cease” and “desist”.

Of all the companies in existence, a blinds and wallpaper outfit would seem to be one of the least likely to sue Google.  But sue Google it (the American Blind & Wallpaper Factory) did, and the lawsuit has finally been resolved.  No surprises here: Google won.

Trademark and copyright issues are complicated. That’s why we have lawyers. Luckily, we also have lawyers willing to drop by the Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Jose to shine a little light on the issue.

The whole keyword-advertising-violates-our-trademark debate has been brought to court more than once and more than once has been unsuccessful. American Airlines, though, is perhaps the largest company to make the claim, filing a trademark violation suit against Google.

A trademark infringement court case involving court-labeled "vexatious litigant" Leo Stoller against baseball great George Brett took a humorous twist when the judge linked to a copyright infringing video on YouTube in his written opinion.

A revived squabble between two recreational flooring companies has resulted in Google being subpoenaed for some of its keyword purchase data. The full implications of the order are not yet known, but third parties are nervous about being pulled in, and others worry about competitive data being de facto purchased through the courts.

Bad news for Google in Germany after a court denied any further action against Daniel Giersch in order to wrangle the rights of the GMail trademark from him. Giersch began using the GMail mark in 2000, four years earlier than Google.

Those bringing lawsuits claiming that bidding on competitor trademark keywords is a form of infringement aren’t doing well in court. Though a few cases have made it past one court or another, those and others are getting caught up in the Second Circuit.

If you’re thinking of setting up a new business with any combination of the words "my" "place" or "space" in the name of it, be aware that MySpace will most likely file against you at the US Patent and Trademark Office.

The search advertising company has been fighting against the usage of its name as a verb ever since Merriam-Webster put ‘google’ in the dictionary. It’s a battle they are not going to win.

A resounding "DOI!" came springing out of the Utah legislature late last week as lawmakers acknowledged they should have done a little background work, or at least listened to all the squalling, before they passed the Trademark Protection Act.