Class-Action denied in Google AdSense for Domains Case

David Naffziger Dec 19, 2008

In the Vulcan Golf vs. Google case, the judge recently denied a motion by the plaintiffs to turn the lawsuit into a class action. We've mentioned the lawsuit before, but the general gist is that the plaintiffs are alleging that Google and several other parties participate in trademark infringement by selling ads on infringing domain names.

The judge rejects the class-action because of the sheer complexity of evaluating who could be a member of the class - essentially each class-member would need to establish that they have a distinctive trademark, which would be an involved court proceeding in and of itself.

Eric Goldman has a great writeup that goes into the case in more detail.

The case isn't dead, but this definitely deals a significant blow to the plaintiffs as it reduces the upside for the plaintiff's legal team (which includes Ben Edelman).

Topics: affiliate marketing, paid search, Trademark and Law

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