Trademark Violations and Search Engines

JNKProducts said: "The internet and trademarks seem to be a popular theme. I am posting this in hopes that it helps someone or brings additional clarity. Our company name and contact information has been replaced with xxxx Original Note: (Our reply below) A few months ago, I spoke with someone at your company in regards to your use of the WeatherTech trademark in search engine advertising. I made the simple request that your company discontinue the use of our brand name WeatherTech as a vehicle to drive traffic to your web site. To this, I was given a very cold shoulder and told to speak with your lawyer. You currently are advertising with Google AdWords to display an ad when users search on the word "WeatherTech". Custom Car Floor Mat Ultimat Floor Mat, custom cut free shipping, price protection. [url]www.xxxxxxxx.com[/url] Surprisingly, you do not sell WeatherTech products! In your mission statement, bullet point number two reads, "Treat our customers as we want to be treated". May I ask if you would appreciate searching on Google.com for WeatherTech products and then being led to your web site where you cannot purchase WeatherTech products? Can you say with absolute certainty that you are upholding your own mission statement? The core values that you base your company's operations upon? it is against trademark law to utilize MacNeil Automotive's trademarks in a deceptive fashion. I ask that you immediately remove all reference to WeatherTech and/or any object of Intellectual Property owned by MacNeil Automotive Products, Ltd. from your advertising. If my request is not met with the appropriate aforementioned action before the end of business Thursday, January 27th, the matter will grow out of my hands. Regards, Brian Evans Internet Marketing Manager MacNeil Automotive Products, Ltd. 630-769-1500 --------------------------- Our Reply --------------------------- Dear Mr. Evans, Thank-you for your inquiry about our use alleged use of your trademarked name. The case law on this issue is new, but so far has been very clear. If you can show me where I violate the current interpretations of the trademark law, as seen in the recent Google case, please advise. Partial text below then I will continue with my response. [url]http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/10423304.htm[/url] . Google wins in trademark lawsuit ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - Google Inc. won a major legal victory Wednesday when a federal judge ruled that the search engine's advertising policy does not violate federal trademark laws. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema rejected a claim by auto insurance giant Geico Corp., which argued that Google should not be allowed to sell ads to rival insurance companies that appear whenever Geico's name is typed into the Google search box. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your nasty note was sent to our sales department and went out to all of our employees. It shows that you lack the ethics and self respect to address this issue to management instead of my sales department and that this was nothing but an obvious attempt at intimidation. It is also Libel Per Se and may be turned over to my attorney. Please address future concerns to xxx or xxx. The truth is when we were a small company we had expressed an interest in selling your product. Now that we have millions of dollars in sales on an annual basis, a good portion thereof whit a direct competitor, you are trying to threaten us with silly lawsuits that would not ever even go to trial. The bottom line is simple. The word WeatherTech does not appear in our site, our meta tags or our advertising. Us showing up on the same page as your dealers when a customer is looking for floor mats is no different than us appearing on the same page in the yellow pages. If our listing appeared in the natural listings, that could indicated a possible trademark violation if we had intentionally used your name in Meta tags and the body of our text to confuse customers. We have done no such thing. Further, your claim, if one existed, would be against Google, not us. Please send further correspondence containing legal threats to xxx"

JNKProducts said: "------------------------- From them ------------------------- [email]arthom@xxxlll.com[/email] writes Obviously, it must somehow, as it comes up under Google searches! ------------------------- We Reply ------------------------- I am in complete disbelief that you continue to send these inquiries to my sales department after I specifically requested that any such communication be directed to me. Perhaps you need to poke around on Google adwords to get a better idea of how they work. If you can provide me any URL on any page of any site that we own that uses the word weathertech I will remove it within 3 minutes. If you can provide me an ad that purposefully uses weathertech in the ad itself, that we have paid for and have 100% control over content, I will pay you the profit from every sale it has generated. You can do a Google search under JNK Weathertech. You won't find a thing. We do everything buy the book and always have. The fact that we show up when someone types in Weathertech is a feature of Google adwords. Granted, it is a feature that we could shut off, but based on a recent federal court ruling we are under no obligation to do so. Further, our ad that Brian has questioned clearly identifies what we do sell and leaves no room for confusion. Is a customer confused when garage door openers and garage doors are on the same page in the yellow page -- I suppose it is possible but not my responsibility. This is a win win situation. If you want to take us to court, and by some stretch of the imagination actually win we can use the case law to help us with some of the products we manufacturer. That being said the recent Geico Vs. Google case makes things pretty clear so we will go into any legal battle with the intent to win and recover our legal costs. Again, do not use the xxx email address."