AXA challenges Google's business model - Breaking - theage.com.au: "AXA, the world's No.3 insurer, is taking Google Inc to court next month in the latest trademark challenge to threaten the heart of Google's business model - advertising.
Google is already embroiled in litigation on both sides of the Atlantic over claims that its pay-for-placement service, Adwords, lets clients hijack their competitors' trademarks...
A source close to the insurer said the lawsuit was filed after Google sold AXA's registered trademarks as advertising search terms.
Internet users who typed "AXA" or "Direct Assurance" into the search engine got ads for rival insurers alongside ordinary search results, the source said. A Google search in Paris last Thursday of "AXA" reaped mostly AXA sites and one UK financial planning site...
The lawsuits have arisen despite Google's stated policy that it will generally remove ads triggered by registered trademarks when notified by their legitimate owners.
Google is about to relax that policy. Earlier this month, it announced plans to allow the sale of any US or Canadian trademark as a search term. Trademarks in the text of ads would remain restricted.
The shift would give Google a more aggressive stance on trademarks than its archrival Yahoo Inc, whose paid search service, Overture, pledges to vet the use of brands as search terms."
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