Re: Estee Lauder sues Excite over keywords
RICHARD_at_TENAGRA.COM WROTE:
>More power to Estee Lauder. I hope they win. Using other
>peoples trademarks in this manner is dirty pool at best.
>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I would like to clarify this issue of trademark infringement
for this particular case...
This is NOT Chevrolet buying Ford's keywords. This is a
RESELLER of Estee Lauder buying a keyword for an item that
they genuinely sell. In my opinion, it's not a trademark
infringement -- Estee Lauder is suing its own
point-of-purchase. Very odd. You would think they could
work this out more amiably.
The real parallel would be if CDNOW bought the keywords
"Mariah Carey" and "Pearl Jam", then their labels sued CDNOW
for infringement. In reality, CDNOW has a valid reason to
use those keywords. An offline parallel would be when
Nordstrom runs print ads with information about Estee
Lauder. I'm sure they have to clear their ads with Estee
Lauder to keep the brand consistent, but I doubt that Estee
Lauder would sue them if there were a conflict.
I agree that using someone else's (a competitor's) keywords
is absolutely unethical. But I don't think this case
counts. If Chanel had bought "Estee Lauder," that would be
a different case.
We have faced the same issue with our client, Swiss Army
Brands (http://www.swissarmy.com). Various resellers have
bought the Swiss Army names at different times and
maintained Yahoo! listings under our brand name: we have
taken a laissez-faire approach. The clicks and sales come
back to us in the end, so why sue? As long as they keep a
quality site and good-faith relationship with Swiss Army,
they are our partners -- not our competitors.
I think the bigger issue here is the increasing trend of
brands and manufacturers suddenly selling directly on the
web, effectively making themselves a competitor to their own
(traditional) retail partners. Shouldn't brands be able to
resolve this conflict without destroying - even suing -
their own channels?
Kim Brooks
Bardo Internet Marketing
http://bardo.seattle.wa.us
========================================================================
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This week's Online Advertising Discussion List sponsor:
Conducent
Don't Buy Hope! Get a 94% User Response Advertising with Conducent!
Place Dynamic Ads in Downloadable Software. Invest in Results!
http://www.conducent.com/advertisers.shtm or eisenstadta@conducent.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
========================================================================
Online Advertising Discussion List To Unsubscribe send UNSUBSCRIBE
http://www.o-a.com/ to online-ads-request@o-a.com
Received on Wed Feb 03 1999 - 10:49:30 CST
