By Owen Kirshner
Part 1 – Google AdWords moves a step closer to global acceptance with a win in Australian court. AdWords has been slowly gaining legitimacy throughout the world with some key wins in court. This most recent win follows a complaint by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission alleging false advertising claims because AdWords advertisers were buying keyword advertising on their competitors trademarks. The High Court of Australia found that Google was an intermediary and was not liable for the advertising practices of their AdWords users. This case follows several in the US and EU that bring the treatment of internet advertising in line with more traditional advertising platforms, affording them protection from secondary liability. http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2013/02/with_its_austra.htm
Part 2 – A Wisconsin court rejected a publicity rights claim in another AdWords dispute. In this case a personal injury law firm brought suit against a competitive firm that had bought the names of the first firm’s partners on AdWords. The court rejected the claim because the plaintiff’s names were used in an invisible way in the AdWords advertising (they merely led to results, but were not displayed in the results themselves) and thus did not fall under the Wisconsin publicity statute. It should be noted that this type of dispute is often brought as a trademark claim where “use” has often been found in the invisible AdWords process. Although Google was not brought into this suit, it’s clear that despite increasing global acceptance AdWords will continue to raise privacy issues. http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2013/02/buying_keyword.htm