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Lawsuit Alleges Use of Search Engine Keywords Violates Privacy Laws
Habush Habush & Rottier, a Wisconsin personal injury law firm ("Habush & Rottier"), has sued Cannon & Dunphy Attorneys, another Wisconsin personal injury law firm ("Cannon & Dunphy"). The claim alleges that Cannon & Dunphy violated Wisconsin's privacy laws by paying Google Inc. for the keywords, "Habush" and "Rottier", such that a Google search using those terms would not only display the website of Habush & Rottier, but a sponsored link of Cannon and Dunphy as well.
Specifically, Wisconsin's privacy laws prohibit the use of any living person's name for advertising purposes unless consent is provided. Some legal experts, however, suggest that Habush & Rottier's privacy argument is unlikely to succeed since the purpose of such a law is really to prevent the misuse of peoples’ names and images in false endorsements. The use of "Habush" and "Rottier" as keywords, in this case, does not appear to involve such misuse.
The more common approach to challenging online keyword use is to allege trade-mark infringement. It was on this basis that American Airlines had sued both Google and Yahoo Inc. for infringing its trade-mark, "AAdvantage", which was purchased and used as a keyword by competitors of American Airlines. The lawsuit against Google was, however, dismissed last year, while the suit against Yahoo continues.
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