« Cynical Consumers and Brand Antipathy | Main | Teenager Busted for Creating Fake "News" Story »
May 18, 2006
Edina Realty v. TheMLSOnline Settles
By Eric Goldman
The Edina Realty v. TheMLSOnline case, which held (among other things) that purchasing a trademarked keyword was a trademark use in commerce, has reportedly settled, according to the Associated Press. That leaves in place the conflict between that case and the Merck v. Mediplan case, which held that such purchases weren't a trademark use.
Posted by Eric at May 18, 2006 10:48 PM | Search Engines , Trademark
Comments
Interesting reading your blog. I am a real estate broker and I use not only trademarked company names but I also use agent names as keywords as well. I checked with our lawyer before I did this as well as the California Association of Realtors and they found that there was no legal or ethical violation. The reason is that our MLS has a specific agreement that states that if you want your listings to be distributed and available through IDX, you have also agreed to put your listings on anyone else'e website that runs an IDX search engine. Not only do you agree to "share" it, but the listings must include the listing agent's and listing company's name. I cannot edit out this information, therefore, in my opinion, they want me to market their listings. The adwords I use are not only relevant, but I am using them "with permission."
Posted by: Nemo at November 26, 2006 03:02 PM