426,487 Reasons Why Metatags Still Matter (In Court)–Venture Tape v. McGills
…latest appellate courts this year to experience a judicial freakout about metatags. The price tag to the defendant for using ineffectual metatags: $426,487 in damages, costs and attorney’s fees. The…
Court Slams Competitive Metatagging and Keyword Advertising–Soilworks v. Midwest Industrial Supply
…variations of the phrase in metatags for its websites.” The opinion doesn’t specify if the advertiser triggered ads on the term “soil sement” or displayed the trademark in the ad…
Two Regressive Search Engine Advertising Rulings–Standard Process v. Total Health and Finance Express v. Nowcom
…name was to direct potential consumers of Finance Express’ products to Nowcom’s website.” * Metatags/Keyword Stuffing. I have argued against including competitive trademarks in keyword metatags on a straight cost-benefit…
Keyword Metatags and Keyword-Triggered Ads Don’t Create Initial Interest Confusion–Designer Skin v. S&L Vitamins
…the surreptitious trademark uses in the keyword metatags and in keyword advertising, not any uses visible to consumers. The plaintiffs argued that these surreptitious uses created initial interest confusion (the…
Court Says Keyword Metatags Don’t Matter–Standard Process v. Banks
…minimal acknowledgement to keyword metatags. Lawyers, on the other hand, have been living in a parallel fantasy universe where keyword metatags single-handedly divert unwaveringly brand-loyal customers to piratical competitors. Even…
11th Circuit Freaks Out About Metatags–North American Medical v. Axiom
…Circuit on metatags. The parties compete in the “spinal decompression” device market. Defendant Axiom included the plaintiff NAM’s trademarks “Accu-Spina” and “IDD Therapy” in the metatags but did not otherwise…
1-800 SKI VAIL Doesn’t Infringe–Vail Associates v. Vend-Tel-Co
…index the metatags? What content did searchers see in search results triggered by metatags that were actually indexed? In the case of the keyword advertising, what did the ad copy…
ABA IP Section Quietly Considering Anti-Consumer Proposals to Regulate Keyword Advertising
…1990s, some search engines considered “hidden text” such as metatags in their rankings algorithms. Today, many search engines—most notably Google—simply ignore hidden metatags when making ranking determinations. If a website…
2007 Blog Year-in-Review
…Amicus Brief [overflow from #1] 4) Sex.com — An Update 5) Regulating “Stealth” Marketing [overflow from #2] 6) Keyword Ads and Metatags Don’t Confuse Consumers–J.G. Wentworth v. Settlement Funding 7)…
December 2007 Quick Links
…statement was made in the context of a counterfeit component part, but it sounds like a good reason to reject liability for including trademarks in keyword metatags. * Todd Hollis…