Last week we reported that a Texas company, Firepond, filed a federal lawsuit against Google, seeking class action status over allowing the sale of the sale of keywords under trademarked terms, for all trademark holders in the state of Texas.
On Thursday, Van Nuys, Calif.-based real estate investment guru John Beck, filed suit, in the federal court for the eastern district of Texas, this time seeking class action status for trademark owners nationwide.
The Beck complaint is similar to Firepond’s in that it alleges that Google infringed on his trademark by allowing rivals to use his name to trigger search ads. He further alleged the practice harms him by confusing Web users, diverting traffic that would otherwise go to his sites, and allowing rivals to benefit from his goodwill.
Beck’s official sites sell instructional materials that promise to teach people how to turn a profit by buying cheap real estate. Friday afternoon, a Google search on Beck’s company name, John Beck’s Amazing Profits, turned up several sponsored ads for sites operated by rivals.
Here’s another similarity to the Firepond suit, Beck hired the same law firm that represents Firepond and he filed the case, not in California where his business is based, but in the same district in Texas that Firepond filed suit.
Beck’s lawsuit was filed the same day that Google announced its new policy to allow marketers to include trademarks in the ad copy itself, a move that in itself could spur yet more litigation and the same week that Google announced that it would allow rival to purchase trademark keywords in more than 200 countries.
John Beck is one of those big time scammers who have a track record of going for the “easy money”. It’s pretty sad to see him use this as a way to gain exposure and maybe get a nice settlement.
This are real interesting cases to watch .
What do you think the outcome shall be?
Regards,
Robbie
Robbie
Just because you asked, here are my thoughts.
I think class action status will not be granted.
Class action status is for people having the same basic set of facts, same set of results and same claim.
Trademark infringement is quite individual.
Is every trademark holders brand have the same value? Of course not.
Does every trademark get completing keyword buys, of course not.
Some trademarked keywords, get a lot of bidders while others get none.
I think the fact pattern and damage claims are too individual to be ripe for a class action.
Now as to the individual claims not too many decision have been made on this. Is it up to Google to determine which terms are trademarks and determine who is a competitor? On the other hand courts and panels have put this duty on domain owners for years.
So as to individual claims, I think this is going to be an issue litigated for years, with some decisions going each way. Since they are all federal cases and assuming that the loser appeals each decision, I see a day when there is a split in the federal court system, some districts holding for Google and some holding for the advertiser, which means at some point and time, maybe 5 years from now the Supreme Court may have the ultimate say.
Dan
Not sure these cases are going to get settled.
Google obviously feels comfortable about their legal grounds for accepting these ads, otherwise they wouldn’t have opened the door up more last week by making the announcements they did.
At this point I think Google has gone all in on the issue and will have to defend this one to the end, otherwise they will be hit over and over again like the tobacco industry in a never ending stream of suits
Is this the real estate “guru” John Beck?
Thanks Mike for your answer – A great reply
I too see this being in the courts for many years with each party appealing either decision.
Keep up the great work you do for us all here on this blog it is appreciated!
Regards,
Robbie
A note to these companies: Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. If you want to make money, drop your high priced attorneys.
Tony
He has been called a real estate guru by many and other have a lesser opinion of him:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/135/RipOff0135115.htm
Why does almost everything legal having to do with domains or trademarks come from Texas, and quite often Dallas specifically?
I’d almost bet there is some kind of connection between Texas, trademarks, UDRPs, the lawyers, etc…… It’s very peculiar.
Johnny
You do make a point, the one case that was decided in this arena the “Heartbrand Beef” case against yahoo was also out of Texas:
http://www.thedomains.com/2009/02/18/yahoo-wins-ppc-keyword-ad-case/
I guess the Guru isn’t doing too well with real estate anymore. Plan B is to sue google.
Sadly, John Beck, like Jeff Paul, went over to the dark side years ago as part of joining the infomercial flood…
Years ago, John was an honest real estate investor here in California with a great monthly newsletter specializing in teaching how to buy & sell property-tax defaulted realty.
What he does now is lie about how to actually buy this stuff. He states that you just go to the sales (or get the property lists from the county tax collectors where applicable), bid on the properties and/or just pay off the back taxes, and you own the properties free and clear.
But in the large majority of cases, that’s not true; as all you’ve bought is a tax certificate; and not the property/home;…which the current owner can pay off whenever they want; with interest; to stop you from ever actually owning the property.
Furthermore, in many states/counties where the property itself is auctioned off, the competition for these properties is fierce…with many/most of them selling w/in 75% of their true market value.
“Pennies on the dollar?” By and large nothing but more lies.
Consistently more favorable outcome based on other cases in that area, I guess, as MHB posted one sample case in the complainant’s favor.
As mentioned by Mike and others…
– if Google felt they were in the 49% (or less) they would have bailed months (years ago).
And I would add, with that the search business would be gone – in many circles search is an intuitive characteristic of the Internet in general.
We are not talking about Firepond.com, MyFirepond.com or Fire-Pond.com, etc. where TM infringement is obvious because of the demand for the term, as created by UDRP and ACPA opinions through the years (Pepsi could not operate under Pepsi.net) .
Certainly Firepond has benefited from search by a user entering in a broad category of products they and their completion provide and then the user clicks and buys from Firepond.
Or maybe someone got pissed off at Firepond and wants to price shop a similar product from a competitor so they key in “Firepond Widget” and 2 payed results down a competitor shows up with a similar widget. Trying to stop that is a bright RED flag of Anti-Trust and that is where Google (and Yahoo, Live, Ask, etc.) will prevail – we can say what we want about the government – but one thing the gov. ultimately does not tolerate is Monopolies.
I guess what I am saying is Firepond might have legitimate claims at the 30,000 foot level – but those claims are not close to the Anti-Trust implications they will create – so tough Firepond – deal with it.
And I would add to that the one day the Gov. might consider Google to be a Monoply in itself as some suggest even now – but that has nothing to do with what Google sells content (Keywords).
Everything else is smoke and mirrors and millions in legal fees.
Brian Wick
Cheap Yellow Pages