Person v. Google Appeal Rejected

By Eric Goldman

Person v. Google, 2009 WL 3059092 (9th Cir. Sept. 24, 2009)

In June 2007, I wrote:

“Person is a lawyer and a former candidate for NY Attorney General. He sued Google for antitrust violations based on its AdWords practices. The first court rejected his suit for improper venue. Person tried again in Google’s home court, and Judge Fogel dismissed the lawsuit a second time (with leave to amend) in March. Person didn’t give up, but this time Judge Fogel closed the door for good, dismissing the lawsuit a third time–this time with prejudice–because Person didn’t cure the defects with his allegations of the relevant market. So this lawsuit should be over unless Person decides to take it to the Ninth Circuit.”

Winning points for persistence but simultaneously losing points for questionable legal judgment, Person did in fact appeal the case to the Ninth Circuit. However, he unsurprisingly didn’t make any greater headway on his case. In a non-precedential memorandum opinion, the Ninth Circuit needed only 2 paragraphs to breezily brush Person’s appeal aside. As I also said in my 2007 post, “While this particular lawsuit was misguided from inception, I doubt this is the last time Google will face antitrust challenges.”