According to a new book on search engine advertising by Catherine Seda, president and CEO of Seda Communication (www.sedacommunication.com), a search engine marketing company, current trademark law doesn’t prohibit questionable search marketing tactics by competitors, that is, brands are not fully protected on the web.
In her book “Search Engine Advertising, Buying Your Way to the Top to Increase Sales”, Seda explains that complaints made by larger companies have prompted some search engines to post trademark infringement complaint procedures on their websites, and recommends running queries in search engines for business owners’ trademarks to find out if their competitors are bidding on them.
Seda is positive that search engines are not proactively monitoring trademark space, and predicts that trademark infringement lawsuits filed against search engines this year by companies including American Blind and Wallpaper Factory and Geico may be stuck in court for a while, leaving brand protection completely up to the owners.
