CheatAd !

Whether or not search engines can sell advertisements based on trademarked keywords has been discussed many times. According to Mike at TechDirt, buying an ad on a keyword should not be a violation of trademarks. Mike also take issues on the fact that Yahoo and Google, instead of the advertisers, were usually the target of these trademark lawsuits.

With all of the lawsuits, Yahoo and Google took separate paths. Yahoo said they would stop selling ads based on trademarked terms on their Overture / Yahoo Search Marketing advertisement network. Google, on the other hand, made it clear it thinks it’s fine to sell ads based on trademarked keywords.

This in turn has resulted in a funny twist. Yahoo go to Google and placed bids on “www.lovecity” and “lovecity.com,” so when someone searches on those phrases, Yahoo Personals would come up in the search ads on Google and Google’s ads network. lovecity.com’s owner is none too pleased and, as Search Engine Watch has noted, has sued Yahoo for trademark infringement.

AdWords, a Google advertising tool, allows companies to bid for ads placement in Google’s search-results pages and its network’s member sites.

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