Trademark Infringement Through PPC Keywords

**mweidner2782** · 07-09-2008, 03:43 PM

Hello,

I have gotten a summons in a civil action today about a website I was running.

I was buying the keyword of their business name to draw traffic to a review page that compared their product to another one.

The site was not slanderous at all and what was stated was fact.

I am not sure exactly how to respond to this. It says "you must serve on the plaintiff an answer to the attached complaint or motion under rule 12 of the fed rules of civil procedure.

Does anyone have any advice? I think this is part of something bigger as others have tried to sue Google for infringement.

Any advice would be great or if you need more information just let me know.

Thank you!

**mweidner2782** · 07-09-2008, 03:45 PM

Also, I did email the attorney saying that I have ceased and diseased the site and google adwords campaign.

I had no idea that this was this big of a deal. It was just a simple one page review site that is now causing all this trouble.

**Mr. Knowitall** · 07-10-2008, 07:41 AM

We can't tell you if your actions constituted a trademark violation as we haven't seen the ads. Also, even if we could, this is a bit up in the air. You are much less likely to be found to have committed a trademark violation in the U.S. for using somebody else's trademark as a keyword than you are in some other nations, but even here there are a lot of unresolved issues. So playing it safe and abiding by a "cease and desist" letter makes sense.

But from what you say, you've been sued - so you need to get a lawyer and answer the complaint. You can do it yourself if you're not incorporated - the federal rules of civil procedure are online - but it's hard to defend yourself in court, and if your business is incorporated it has to be represented by a lawyer.

Within the realm of keyword buys and 'cease and desist' letters, if you can get your own lawyer to write you an opinion letter giving a green light for your campaign, you can proceed on that basis knowing that you can fall back on your lawyer's malpractice insurance if he's wrong. (But make sure your lawyer is insured.) But if you've already been sued, you would want to cease the keyword activity until the suit is resolved.