Another Reminder: Lawsuits Over Competitive Keyword Ads Are Stupid–

March 15, 2026 · by Eric Goldman · in Marketing, Search Engines, Trademark

This case involves two competitors that buy homes for cash: plaintiff Brothers Buy Homes and defendant John Buys Bay Area Homes. The defendant bought competitive keyword ads. Initially, the defendant displayed the plaintiff’s trademark in the ads, apparently due to the keyword insertion feature (see screenshot). The defendant turned off the keyword insertion feature after getting a demand letter.

The plaintiff sued in state court, the defendant removed to federal court, and in this ruling, the court remands the case back to state court because the plaintiff lacks Article III standing. This reminded me of the Yelp law litigation genre, where the cases routinely bounce from federal court because they are such trash that they lack Article III standing. Getting a case remanded to state court because the case is so terrible seems like a short-term “victory” for plaintiffs.

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The court summarizes the key evidence of the lawsuit’s lack of merit:

[Defendant’s] search confirmed that Defendants received three leads from online searches for the terms “Brothers Buy Homes,” or “Brothers Buys Homes” between January 1, 2024, and December 31, 2024. All three leads occurred when the keyword insertion feature was turned off; thus, Blue Bay’s trademark never appeared in any of the three ads that generated leads. Blue Bay’s Operations Manager, Mike Briener, admitted there would not be any confusion with potential customers if the keyword insertion feature was turned off and Blue Bay’s trademark name did not appear in Defendants’ ad. Defendants therefore did not receive any revenue, profit, or business opportunity from any Google Ads containing Blue Bay’s name.

Let’s go over that the evidence again:

(1) The plaintiff is suing over 3 clicks. That alone is almost certainly financially irrational.

(2) Those clicks came from keyword ads without the plaintiff’s trademark in the ad copy.

(3) The plaintiff concedes those clicks aren’t attributable to consumer confusion. Briener’s concession may sound like a big deal, but he’s just acknowledging black letter law. Courts have repeatedly and unhesitatingly rejected trademark lawsuits over competitive keyword ads that don’t reference the TM in the ad copy. See, e.g., the Lerner & Rowe case.

(4) Defendants “did not receive any revenue, profit, or business opportunity from any Google Ads containing Blue Bay’s name.”

Why is this case still going? What are we even doing here?

The court recapitulates why this lawsuit is so meritless:

Defendants’ evidence shows that Defendants have not misrepresented themselves as Blue Bay, Defendants did not use Blue Bay’s trademark to generate leads by confusing consumers, Defendants did not do business with consumers who mistook Defendants as Blue Bay, and Blue Bay has not lost money from Defendants’ actions.

Sounds like this case is primed for dismissal. However, unfortunately for the defendants, the court resolves these problems on Article III standing rather than substantively dismissing the case for lack of merit. The court says it’s required to remand the case due to the Article III problem. This case is already clearly dead, but I guess the funeral will be a bit delayed. It seems like an excellent candidate for a trademark fee shift to the defendant.

Case Citation: Blue Bay Ventures LLC v. John Buys Bay Homes LLC, 2026 WL 710398 (N.D. Cal. March 13, 2026)

Personnel note: the plaintiff’s lawyer is Steffanie Danielle Stelnick, whose website self-styles herself as “the Real Estate Queen.” Her bio explains: “she earned her title as the Real Estate Queen helping clients with their full service real estate needs year after year.” 🤔

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Another Reminder: Lawsuits Over Competitive Keyword Ads Are Stupid–

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