By Andy Beal on December 22, 2009

Amazon Sued Over Defamatory Google AdWords Ads

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Here’s a fun Christmas game for you to play.

How many different types of lawsuits can you think of that include Google AdWords? Put your party creative hats on and see what you can come up.

OK, Sellify, you go first!

Sue Amazon over defamatory statements posted in Google AdWords by one of its affiliates?

Wow! That is creative!

And, it’s actually true! Writes Techdirt:

The two main complaints are over trademark violations of buying keywords, and then defamation. Defamation? Yes, because apparently when people do searches on Sellify or some of its related trademarked names, like OneQuality, some of the ads that come up say things like:

Beware of the SCAM Artist
Camcorders at the Best Price
From the Trusted Source
amazon.com

As Mike Masnick points out, this lawsuit is unlikely to go anywhere. Not only is Amazon not actually the appropriate party to sue, but trademark infringements in search ads tend to get bogged down in the courts anyway.

Still, you have to admire the creativity of Sellify. If we were really playing the above game, it would have a good chance of claiming the top prize. :-)


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6 comments on “Amazon Sued Over Defamatory Google AdWords Ads”

  1. Jordan McCollum Says:

    December 22nd, 2009 at 11:19 am

    Oh, Monty Hall, how I’ve missed you!

    Isn’t there some recourse they can take with Google? (Oh, wait, this is America. Sue away!)

  2. Carter Cole Says:

    December 22nd, 2009 at 11:52 am

    first i want to point out that math captcha are easily broken (off topic but why even put one in there if i can get 100% success rate) and im no lawyer but just mentioning a copyrighted name doesn’t constitute infringement… and why is amazon being sued for one of its affiliates? its just pointed at their site… they didnt create it why dont find the affiliate id and sue them…
    .-= Carter Cole´s last blog ..Optimizing for Facebook Share with Cloaking (but its good cloaking) =-.

    Andy Beal Reply:
    December 22nd, 2009 at 1:28 pm

    All good points, except the math captcha one. :-P

    It works so much better than any others and has reduced our automated spam to almost zero. :-)

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  5. Sioux falls cars for sale Says:

    December 23rd, 2009 at 1:00 pm

    In time presedence will be set enough that people won’t try anymore