The trademark question keeps on keeping on. Friday American Airlines sued Google for trademark infringement. This is the same kind of suit that so far has gotten nowhere, recall American Blinds and the tons of others like it. When you look at the kind of companies that come up when you do a search for “aa.com” or “American Airlines,” however, they are not United or Delta. They are cheap-o (literally) AdSense arbitrage services that perhaps irritate American because they subvert the airline’s ability to gouge its customers by directing searchers directly to the AA website.
Just a thought.
What American Airlines has in common with American Blinds is a very bland trademark bordering on the generic. American Airlines is an american airline so many search results (and ads) not associated with AA are relevant to the query. It will be interesting to see if this observation enters the argument of the case. Would the position be different if an airline with a less generic trademark (like JetBlue) had filed the suit?