http://www.denverpost.com/ci_3937517
A Colorado company that owns the dating website lovecity.com has sued Yahoo, claiming the Internet giant improperly used a trademark domain name to direct consumers looking for lovecity on Google to Yahoo's dating site.
AdWords, a Google advertising tool, allows companies to compete for placement in the "sponsored links" section, on the top and right sides of its search-results pages.
Yahoo inserted keywords including lovecity,
www.lovecity.com and lovecity.com into its AdWords advertising, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Denver by Meade- based JP Enterprises.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo representatives didn't return phone calls and e-mails for comment.
JP Enterprises, which holds a trademark on the Internet domain name lovecity.com, claims its rival's use of the words to lure customers constitutes trademark infringement.
When consumers searched for any of the lovecity keywords, they found links to the lovecity site on the search-results page.
But the sponsored links displayed a list of dating websites owned by Yahoo and two other companies named in the lawsuit, the suit said.
"This results in people clicking on the (sponsored link) that appears to the right rather than the actual search terms; it causes consumer confusion; and in a trademark-infringement claim, the issue before the court is 'Does it cause confusion?"' said Thomas Howard, a Louisville lawyer handling the case for JP Enterprises.
The two other companies named in the suit in U.S. District Court in Denver are Irving, Texas-based HDVE LLC, and Los Angeles-based Spark Networks.
HDVE, owner of true.com, couldn't be reached for comment. Gail Laguna, spokeswoman for Spark Networks, which offers a number of singles websites, said Spark wouldn't discuss the suit.
Google warns those who use its AdWords search page that they are responsible for assuring that the keywords they select don't violate trademark or other laws, the suit said.
JP Enterprises is asking the court to stop the companies from using its trademark and to award damages in an amount to be determined at trial.