Trademark law was instituted primarily to protect consumer. When a customer sees a brand or logo, they associate a certain quality and expectation with that logo. If inferior companies were allowed to use same logo and have worse products or services, consumer would not know what to expect. With trademark law consumer gets a degree of certainty and avoids confusion or unmet expectations.

According to lawyers this litigation could get very complicated. What Google needs to do is convince court that there is no customer confusion with respect to keywords and how Google serves ads based on search queries. They will establish this most likely by running various consumer surveys. If successful, this would establish a legal precedent preventing future lawsuits of same nature; however, there is big risk if Google fails. Ninety-five to ninety-nine percent of Google’s income is from its advertising model, and a ruling against it could be trouble for company. If they settle, however, like Overture did then it sets no legal precedence, making it possible for other companies to make same charges in future.

Whatever result, it is clear that in coming months something will happen to search marketing. At very least, Google will have to monitor trademark infringement a bit more vigorously; at worst company may lose a part of its revenue.

The manufacturing associations that become early adopters of this Affinity Program will receive highest rebate level from TR Cutler, Inc. Cutler expects more than 200 manufacturing associations to participate in program by end of 2006, serving more than 4000 manufacturers in North America.

TR Cutler 954-486-7562 www.trcutlerinc.com e-mail protected from spam bots

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