If I google my company's name, my competitor's name comes up as a sponsored link - is this legal?

Question

If I had googled a topic, say 'mexican restaurants' I could understand getting a kazillion responses, plus some sponsored links. However, this seems incredibly unethical, almost like identity theft!

Answer 1

Is it legal for your competitor to rent space on the billboard or bus bench across the street from you? Sure it is. If they choose to use keywords such as your company name to advertise, there is little you can do about it. But realize that you are such a threat to these people that they have decided to target you, spending their money to counter your web content, which bodes well for you in the long run.

Answer 2

In the business world, "identity theft," as you put it, is called trademark infringement.

It sounds like your competitor purchased your company's name as an Adword on Google. That is, they paid for an ad that appears whenever a user types in the name of your company.

Whether this is trademark infringement or unfair competition is uncertain. As you read this, there are courts around the world hearing arguments about this very issue, and in many cases Google is the defendant. Arguably, this is different than the situation where your competitor advertises on a billboard near your business. With Adwords, the consumer may be searching for one brand when he gets an ad and link for for a competior's product. So there is a potential for consumer confusion. And arguably, the competitor is "trading off" of your name.

In general, Google has fared well in the United States, where no court has yet held that such sales of Adwords constitutes trademark infringement. Outside of the United Sates, however, results have been mixed. Most notable is a recent decision in France, where a France court has ordered Google to stop showing ads in response to a search for "Louis Vuiton."

In addition, Google's terms and conditions for its Adwords service forbids trademark infringement (not that can be completely certain what that is!). You might consider filing a complaint with Google here:

http://www.google.com/tm_complaint_adwords.html

Answer 3

It's advertising in a public domain. The act of searching and retrieving results is all out in the public view. If a competitor chooses to advertise there, it's their right. The company being searched on can easily do the same.

Think about it. It is not ethical or legal for a satellite company to ban Cable ads on any of their channels, and vice versa. The only problem you should be identifying is that the company being searched on isn't advertising where it should be.

Answer 4

Yeah my friend it's the internet world!! We have to work on a lot of legislation for this cyber world, but we're too busy fighting wars. We'll get to it someday when we care enough to put people in power who care about this stuff!!!what more terror than what can happen in cyber space?

Answer 5

Just buy an ad using the name of his business as a keyword. Got to fight fire with fire!

Answer 6

ummm maybe