EDVA Grants Summary Judgment for Google, Dismisses Rosetta Stone’s Trademark Infringement Suit

On Wednesday, April 28, the Eastern area of Virginia granted defendant Google’s movement for summary judgment and dismissed Rosetta Stone’s trademark infringement fit versus Google, for “reasons being stated in [his] forthcoming Memorandum Order.”
In a memorandum in help of the movement for Partial Summary Judgment regarding Liability, Rosetta Stone experienced alleged, inter alia, that using Rosetta Stone Spanish Latin America  trademarks on sponsored ads positioned alongside its “organic” lookup final results the two truly and probably baffled shoppers as towards the resource and authenticity on the programs advertised. Rosetta Stone additional charged that search engines experienced information that these sponsored advertisements have been invested in by recognised counterfeiters dependent on Rosetta Stone’s repeated notifications of this type of to search engines more than a period of time of 7 months. In addition, rosetta stone  experienced alleged that Google's utilization of its trademarks to trigger this type of sponsored advertisements was an infringing use.
Google, inside a memorandum in help of the movement for Summary Judgment, countered that its "policy prohibits the profit or advertising of counterfeit goods,” and that it experienced promptly dealt with all recognised instances of counterfeiting on this case. Moreover, search engines claimed, the utilizes of Rosetta Stone’s trademarks by its AdWords plan have been not actionable simply because they constituted possibly lawful references by legitimate resellers to genuine Rosetta Stone products, or references by alleged counterfeiters, who by themselves determined the articles of the ads, to intended Rosetta Stone products, the resources of which have been recognised to buyers as nicely as the authenticity of which search engines experienced no duty to independently determine. Finally, search engines asserted that its utilization of Rosetta Stone Spanish Latin America trademarks as nicely as other searched conditions to create advertisements was a practical and otherwise lawful use that failed to confuse customers.
The situation experienced been scheduled to go to trial on could possibly 5, 2010. As reported by Law360.com, Rosetta Stone will look at an appeal towards the Fourth Circuit right after it has experienced an chance to study Judge Lee’s opinion.