Visual Knowledge

Everyone is watching how the current court cases will effect paid search ads (see below). One "simple"(?) approach that would work, especially if all search engines adopted it, is to maintain a list of everyone who objects to having competitor's results shown when a search on their trademark is conducted. If a search was done on AXA, the search engine should return something like "AXA is a registered trademark." No links, nothing, just a search window to try again. It could also offer a list of "non-offending terms like " Did you mean insurance, financial planning, etc., etc." In other words, the search engine could offer a list of related "terms" that someone could search by (and would certainly find competitors with).

Of course, those companies that don't object would have their site listed prominently in the search engine results just as they do now (assuming they've done a good job at SEO or paid their inclusion fees etc.). I'm betting that once companies find that search engines no longer drive traffic to their sites, complaints will go way down. Just a thought...

New Trademark Lawsuit Challenges Google: "New Trademark Lawsuit Challenges Google
By Laurence Frost, AP Business Writer
April 25, 2004

PARIS (AP) - AXA, the world's No. 3 insurer, is taking Google Inc. to court next month in the latest trademark challenge to threaten the heart of Google's business model - advertising. "