AIT Click Fraud Lawsuit Stayed

April 10, 2006 · by · in Licensing/Contracts, Search Engines

By Eric Goldman

Advanced Internet Technologies v. Google, 2006 WL 889477 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 5, 2006)

AIT is the lead plaintiff who replaced Click Defense in a click fraud class action lawsuit. Last month, Google announced a tentative settlement of the very similar Lane’s Gifts and Collectibles lawsuit. Presumptively, the Lane’s Gifts settlement will cover the substance of the AIT lawsuit, thereby mooting it. So Google requested the judge to stay the AIT lawsuit while the Lane’s Gifts settlement is pending.

In this April 5 ruling, the judge granted Google’s motion to stay the AIT lawsuit. This ruling isn’t really a win for Google yet, but should it close the Lane’s Gifts settlement, and should that settlement moot this AIT lawsuit, then it will only reinforce that Google negotiated a very good deal to settle its past click fraud liability.