Amazon Sued For For Using Trademark Product In PPC Ads

A company that sells instructional videos and CDs sued Amazon for trademark infringement stemming from PPC ads on Google.

The complaint, filed this week by Video Professor, alleges that Amazon uses the phrase “video professor” to trigger pay-per-click ads that direct people to a site that sells instructional CD-ROMS made by the company Professor Teaches.

The complaint also alleges that the “first six products” listed on the landing page are Professor Teaches CD-ROMs, while an exhibit attached to the complaint shows that the seventh through ninth listings were for Video Professor programs.

Amazon sells both Video Professor and Professor Teaches merchandise on the same landing page.

In the last several years, a host of other companies have filed lawsuits over the use of trademarks to trigger search ads.

Google prevailed in a lawsuit brought by insurance company Geico after a federal district court judge ruled that consumers weren’t confused when they entered “Geico” as a search term and the results page included paid ads for Geico rivals.

Google settled another suit brought by American Airlines after a judge declined to dismiss the lawsuit before trial.

As we highlighted in a recent post,, a U.S. District Court judge in Texas ruled in Yahoo’s favor in a search-related lawsuit brought by retailer Heartbrand Beef. There, a rival used the term “Akaushi” to trigger ads. Heartbrand unsuccessfully argued that it was the only U.S. seller of “Akaushi” beef,  and that Yahoo shouldn’t have allowed any other companies to use the term as a keyword.

Since we are not aware of any court, anywhere, holding anyone liable for this type of conduct I certainly hope that courts start making plaintiff’s pay the defendant’s attorney fees to stop these needless suits.