This time of year, there are often few big stories to report on, but that does not mean there isn’t some interesting search engine news happening out in the world!
It seems that there is no escaping the legal system for any of our leading search engines these days as all three, Google, Yahoo, and MSN, are the defendants in a few new cases:
Microsoft Sued over Bing Name
Ars Technica, a company out of St. Louis has decided that the name “Bing” belongs to them, and as a result they have filed suit against Microsoft.
Ars Technica owns Bing Information Design! (bing.biz). The lawsuit states that Microsoft’s Bing “causes confusion with regard to the relationship between the plaintiff and the defendant, confuses the public with regard to the origin of the plaintiff’s services and dilutes the value of the plaintiff’s trademark.”
Microsoft responded to Ars Technica stating “We believe this suit to be without merit and we do not believe there is any confusion in the marketplace with regard to the complainant’s offerings and Microsoft’s Bing.”
While I agree with this statement, it does bring back memories of the MikeRoweSoft case from a few years back – where the same could have been said, but Microsoft still persued legal action – just a bit hypocritical.
(Source: CNET)
Yahoo Sued over Defamatory Posts
A Chicago company filed suit yesterday against Yahoo over defamatory posts made about the company on one of the Yahoo chat boards. Advance Equities claims that defamatory statements were posted to Yahoo’s financial chat board in early November.
Personally I think that if these posts where made by members of the forum community that Advance Equities may be going after the wrong party, but time will tell.
(Source: Chicago Sun-Times)
Google Sued By Chinese Novelist
Mian Mian, an artist in Beijing, is suing Google for damages after her book was found in Googles’ digital library. Google removed the work when it learned about the lawsuit.
Mian Mian is seeking a public apology and damages to the tune of $9,000 US.
(Source: iNews880)