Google Inc crushes American Blind & Wallpaper Lawsuit

Google established its clout yet again as it crushed the lawsuit by American Blind & Wallpaper today. Quoting Reuters,

American Blind & Wallpaper Factory Inc., a reseller of window blinds, had charged that Google abuses trademarks by allowing rivals of the company to buy ads that appear when consumers search the Web for information on that business.

American Blind & Wallpaper were trendsetters when they sued Google Inc almost four years ago inspiring many other small fish to take on the search engine giant. This story though seems to conflict with the fable of David and Goliath with Goliath emerging the victor.

“Google has not made and has not agreed to make any payment to (American Blinds & Wallpaper) of any kind whatsoever, whether in cash, credit or otherwise, and that Google has not agreed to change its trademark policies or any exception to how it applies its trademark policies,” the agreement said.

To salvage some pride for themselves,

American Blinds agreed not to sue Google “so long as Google does not make a material change in its AdWords trademark policy that adversely affects (American Blinds & Wallpaper Factory.” It also agreed not to assist other parties in suing Google.

Some respite that is! Google Inc seems to be making a rather strong statement to people challenging their main livelihood - AdWords. It goes without saying that the future of the other Davids who jumped onto the same courtroom as Google inspired by American Blind is looking rather bleak - whether they will pull out like American Blind did or soldier on for their cause remains to be seen.