Google saw two legal victories this week in copyright and trademark issues.

In the first case, a German artist uploaded large images of her paintings to her website. When Google Image Search displayed thumbnails of those images, she sued for copyright infringement. The German Supreme Court ruled against the artist. As Google says in their European Public Policy blog:

Today´s ruling makes it clear not just for Google, its users in Germany and all owners of websites containing images, but also for all providers of image search services operating in the country: showing thumbnail images within search results is legitimate and millions of users in Germany benefit from being able to discover visual information at the click of a mouse.

The full reasoning behind the decision is yet to come.

Question: is it anti-competitive to regulate your own search advertising program? Answer: yes, according to myTriggers.com or the Ohio Attorney General. When Google sued for $335,000 in backpayments on AdSense clicks, erstwhile Google advertiser/competitor myTriggers.com filed a countersuit alleging Google had dinged their quality score, resulting in a 10,000% increase in costs, because the big G realized myTriggers was a competitor.

This week, the OH AG filed an amicus brief in the case on behalf of myTriggers, arguing that dismissing the case as Google asks “would immunize an entire industry from the reach of this state’s antitrust laws.” MediaPost reports on myTriggers’s arguments:

MyTriggers argues that the drop in quality score was part of an anticompetitive scheme “to ensure that Google can continue to exert control over search advertising.” The shopping search site further asserted that it posed a threat to Google by monetizing searches on a cost-per-action basis, as opposed to Google’s cost-per-click model.