joegratz.net

According to this AP story, United States District Judge Leonie Brinkema has granted partial summary judgment in favor of Google. She ruled that while Geico could go forward with its trademark claims in those cases where Google ads actually contained the word Geico, Google is not liable when Geico’s competitors’ ads are merely triggered by the presence of the word Geico in search queries, search results, or web pages.

Since advertisers control the text of the ads, the remaining issue — liability for use of the word “Geico” in competitors’ ad copy — will come down to whether Google knew that Geico’s trademark rights were being violated (if advertisers’ use of the word “Geico” was indeed infringing).

Congratulations to Mike Page of Keker and Van Nest and the rest of the Google legal team for winning this early battle.