PlexLex: The Law of Google

Bill May Require U.S. Carriers To Drop 2-Year Contracts When Customers Pay Full Price

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce is holding a hearing today on legislation that would require wireless telephone carriers to offer wireless service without contracts for unsubsidized phones.  Google has sought such legislation, which would benefit its endeavors with the Open Handset Alliance and Android.

H.R. __, a Discussion Draft on Wireless Consumer Protection and   Community Broadband Empowerment
      Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet Hearing
          10:00 a.m. in room 2322 Rayburn House Office   Building
          Witness List
          Read the Discussion Draft (pdf)
      Connect to the Audio Webcast (56 kbps)

Analysis here.

Third Circuit: Google Not a State Actor for Civil Rights Claim

In Jayne v. Google Internet Search Engine Founders, No. 07-4083 (3rd Cir. Feb. 7, 2008), the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed the district court's unilateral dismissal of a handwritten complaint that sought $5,000,000,000 in damages against Google's founders.  Plaintiff's claim?  When scrambled up and viewed upside down, the social security number of the plaintiff spells "Google", which the plaintiff alleged to be a violation of his civil rights.  The Court of Appeals affirmed that "Google and its founders are not state actors" and did not act under color of state law.

Google, Microsoft Sued for Alleged Infringement of Advertising Patent

Ohio company Paid Search Engine Tools, LLC has sued Google and Microsoft in the USDC for the Eastern District of Texas, No. 08-cv-061-DF-CE.  The Complaint alleges infringement of U.S. Patent No. 7,043,450, "Paid Search Engine Bid Management", the abstract of which is as follows:

A method and apparatus (information processing system) for overcoming deficiencies and inefficiencies in the current paid search engine keyword bidding market, by providing keyword bidders with information they need to better optimize their use of paid search engines. The system accumulates bid amounts for a plurality of target keywords at one or more paid Internet search engines, and presents the bid amounts to a user, enabling the user to evaluate and optimize bids on those keywords. The system also presents bid amounts for a keyword at one or more paid Internet search engines, in a manner highlighting one or more selected bid amounts of interest to a potential bidder. This permits a bidder to identify the bidder's own bid, and/or to identify a differential in bid amounts that indicates an opportunity for bid optimization. The system further monitors keyword bids at one or more paid Internet search engines to identify bid changes of interest to a potential bidder.

Update: Microsoft's April 28, 2008 Answer and Counterclaim.  Docket now available on Justia.

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Kentucky Federal Court: Adwords May Be "Use in Commerce" Under Lanham Act

In T.D.I. Intern., Inc. v. Golf Preservations, Inc., 2008 WL 294531 (E.D.Ky. Jan 31, 2008), plaintiffs asserted claims for federal trademark infringement, false designation of origin and unfair competition in violation of the Lanham Act based on defendants' alleged "purchase of internet advertising keywords containing plaintiffs' trademarks from popular search enginges, including Google and Yahoo!, which result in Defendants' web site appearing prominently in search engine results when internet users enter XGD or XGD SYSTEMS as search terms."  Defendants moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim, contending that plaintiffs cannot show that defendants had "used in commerce" the plaintiffs' marks, which is a threshold requirement for Lanham Act claims.

The Court denied the motion to dismiss "in light of the uncertain state of the law", finding that plaintiffs had stated a plausible claim.