Commercial PropertyGoogle"s Triumph In Lawsuit Is Bad News For Brokers
Realty Times covered the issue back in 2001 when brokers such as Lennox Scott were upset that their trademarked names could be entered into a Google search by consumers only to find that lead generation companies would pop up first in the results.
Real estate brokers weren"t the only ones. Even advertisers were miffed, including eBay, when searches would lead to competitors first.
At first the IPO-bound Google would politely defer to advertisers and other complainants, but the company was not to be deterred from its Adwords business model, not even by a flurry of lawsuits brought against it from plaintiffs as diverse as fashion goods manufacturer Louis Vuitton, American Blind and Wallpaper Factory, and auto insurer Geico Corp.
Trademarked names are big business as keywords; many consumers type in brand names when they are seeking information to make a purchase. In the finance category, for example, more than half the keywords entered into search engines are for specific brand names such as Wells Fargo, according to Comscore Networks in 2003.
Many believed that the Berkshire-Hathaway Inc.-owned Geico Corp. would have the clout to stand up to Google, but even having Warren Buffett on its team proved no match for the search engine"s arguments.
Google creates revenue by selling ads as "Sponsored Links" to companies that bid on search terms and keywords. The words and terms can include those that are trademarked and servicemarked to the ire of companies that own them as the sponsored links return the advertiser at the top of the page instead of the search term results.
That"s what had real estate brokers upset. A consumer might search Google for "John L Scott, Realtors," but a competitor such as HomeGain, a lead generation company, might have purchased the word "Realtors." Then HomeGain"s sponsored link would show as a first result over the real John L. Scott Website.
Although the ads are marked as sponsored links, Geico argued that having other companies appear next to a user"s search results confuses consumers and illegally exploits Geico"s trademarked brand.
"There is no evidence that that activity alone causes confusion," Judge Leonie Brinkema said while granting Google"s request to dismiss most of the lawsuit.
However, that doesn"t mean the fat lady has sung. Part of Geico"s suit is still pending - to prevent competitors from using Geico"s name in their sponsored ads. Google says it already has a policy that prevents that.
A search on John L Scott Realtors at publication time showed no competing sponsored links. A search for Windemere Realtors returned a search for Vance Realty, an Orlando Windemere franchise broker and Real-Estate-Sell-Buy.com, a HomeGain company.