RosettaStone throws a “Stone” at Google on trademark infringement in adwords

Rosetta stone , leading provider of proprietary language learning software , which went on IPO on Apr 15 , 2009 under the ticket RST listed in NYSE , today sued Google alleging that Google’s flagship adwords program is encouraging misdemeanors to use Rosetta Stone trademarks as keywords and there by misleading consumers & infringing upon on its trademarks.

Rosetta stone seeks injunctive relief to prevent Google from selling the Rosetta Stone trademarks or other terms confusingly similar for use in Google’s Adwords advertising program.

In the past American Airlines and GEICO have sued over Google for the same reasons and those cases are settled without public disclosure. Google’s Adwords is the primary source of revenue & cash-cow for the search behemoth. Google’s competitors Yahoo & Microsoft search advertisement programs are called Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter.Here is the Google’s stance on “Adwords & Trademarks” ,from its website

“With Google AdWords, advertisers may select trademarked terms as keywords or use them in the content of the ad. As a provider of space for advertisements, Google is not in a position to arbitrate trademark disputes between advertisers and trademark owners. As stated in our Terms and Conditions, advertisers are responsible for the keywords and ad text that they choose to use. Accordingly, Google encourages trademark owners to resolve their disputes directly with the advertiser, particularly because the advertiser may have similar ads on other sites. However, as a courtesy to trademark owners, Google is willing to perform a limited investigation of reasonable complaints.”

Let us wait and see how this fares? rosettastonelogo