eff.org — The Utah legislature has quietly passed a dangerous law allowing trademark owners to prevent their marks from being used as keywords to generate comparative ads. If this law takes effect, a company like Chevrolet couldn't purchase "sponsored link" space on the Google results page when a user types "Toyota" as part of a search query.
Apr 10, 2007 View in Crawl 4
analogtoadjuiceApr 10, 2007Submitter
I feel for PPC companies in Utah.....time to move out of state....
heroiclifeApr 11, 2007
It's not illegal to place a Honda billboard next to a Toyota dealership, so why should it be illegal to place a Honda ad next to a search result for Toyota.com?Advertising to your competition is not "hijacking" - you can't manipulate Google search results any more than you can place a Toyota sign on your dealership and sell customers Hondas. Competitors on Google cannot redirect people from Toyota.com to Honda.com - but have the right to market to their competitor's customers.Is this law "business friendly" or just "big-business monopoly friendly"?Email the bill's author: deastman@utahsenate.org