There have been quite a few cases brought against advertisers for buying keyword ads under a trademark term but a Wisconsin Court just rejected an argument that buying a keyword under a persons name violated their right to privacy.

In the case  Habush v. Cannon, the defendants a personal injury law firm bought ads under the keywords of  two of their competitors’ last names (“Habush” and “Rottier”).

The Plaintiffs, not having a trademark rights  in their name, claimed a the ads violated their right of privacy and asked the court to issue an injunction.

Wisconsin court ruled that a keyword advertiser didn’t violate publicity rights by buying a person’s name for keyword advertising

“The defendants used plaintiffs‘ names for advertising and trade purposes without the plaintiffs‘ consent. Thus, plaintiffs have established that, under Wis. Stat. § 995.50, defendants invaded their privacy.” but the added that the plaintiffs must also show that the defendant’s use was “unreasonable.”

The court then explains why a “privacy invasion” by buying keywords ads was reasonable in this case, including:

“positioning keyword ads by organic results is analogous to competitive adjacencies, such as competitors locating their stores next to each other and advertisers bidding against each other for prime positions in Yellow Pages. ”

“users aren’t confused by keyword ads nor did the plaintiffs show any confused consumers, consumers scan the results page to find what they are looking for, and any confusion they experience will be brief.”

“Internet users, and consumers in general, have learned to be skeptical about the first impression they may receive from a web page or commercial advertisement.”

Really?

I think people are still responding to spam, phishing and other schemes that most of us would recognize immediately as something that should not be responded to.

People still buy stuff they see advertised on TV promising to take 20 lbs off of you with no diet or exercise.

People still fall for every get rich quick deal, they think their elected officials are not engaged in illicit behavior.

You get the idea.

By placing an link in a certain spot on a page people know its an ad?

Of course there is still no explanation how if anyone registered the domain name containing the law firm names and then served up ads on them they would be have their domain take away but if its just an ad on Google its Ok.