This Week On “Google Law”

[jmiller]

Who wants to sue Google next? The line begins on Wall Street and, like Google stock, has been growing exponentially since the company went public. The latest pair of Jack Horners trying to get their thumbs in the Google pie are Miami-based Updated.com and Minnesota-based CLRB Hanson Industries, both filing in California courts last week amid allegations of advertising misconduct.

Just in time for SES Conference buzzworthiness, both companies filed suit in San Jose, claiming Google, in one way or another, is in breach of contract.
In the first suit, filed by Updated.com on August 1st, the comparison shopping search engine alleges Google hasn’t fairly compensated it for advertising revenue.

Updated.com says it agreed to display links to Google advertising customers along side its own search results, allowing interested parties direct links to Google clients’ webpages.

Two days later in Santa Clara, CLRB Hanson, an industrial printer, claims in a class action suit, that Google has been charging in excess of CLRB’s daily ad budget for sponsored search results.
Google allows advertisers to limit how much is spent each day on ads in a contractual agreement.

The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages as it is difficult “to determine the exact amount of the injury without a detailed review of Google’s books and records.”

In usual fashion, the Google legal team had little to say on the matter other than the claims were “without merit,” and they will “defend against it vigorously,” according to Google spokesman Steve Langdon. Maybe someone should send Mr. Langdon a thesaurus.