Cybersitter Settles AdWords Battle With Google

Google-GavelCybersitter has settled its dispute with Google about alleged trademark infringement on the AdWords platform, according to court records.

Gregory Fayer, an attorney for Cybersitter, said in a recent court document that the company expects to file dismissal papers by the end of the month. Court records show that the dispute was resolved after a one-day mediation session held on April 24. Additional details about the settlement were not available on Tuesday.

Cybersitter, which sells software that blocks adult content, alleged in its lawsuit that a rival content-blocking company, Net Nanny, paid to have its ads shown to Web users who search for "Cybersitter" on Google. Cybersitter said that its trademark was infringed by those ads.

Google lost an early battle in the case last October, when U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Lew in the Central District of California rejected Google's bid to transfer the case to its home court, the Northern District of California. Cybersitter was an AdWords advertiser, which meant that the company agreed to Google's terms of service -- including a requirement to litigate all ad-related disputes in court in Santa Clara County, California.

Google argued that those terms required Cybersitter's case should be transferred from the Los Angeles area to Northern California, but Lew ruled that Cybersitter's dispute with Google wasn't encompassed by the company's AdWords contract.

Google and Cybersitter did not respond to Online Media Daily's requests for comment. While the exact specifics of the agreement aren't yet known, Google didn't appear to be running any paid ads in response to queries for Cybersitter as of Tuesday afternoon.

Google has faced other lawsuits alleging trademark infringement on AdWords and has settled at least two. In 2008, the company settled a lawsuit brought by American Airlines. Last year, Google resolved a similar case brought by Rosetta Stone. But Google has never definitively lost a lawsuit alleging that the company wrongly allows trademarked terms to trigger search ads.

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