• by Masha Geller , June 27, 2002

Gator just can’t seem to stay out of court. A group of irate Web publishers, including The Washington Post, the New York Times, Dow Jones and Tribune, filed suit in federal court earlier this week against Gator, charging that the firm sells ads - mainly pop-ups - on their proprietary sites without authorization and pockets the proceeds.

The group claims that Gator’s advertising technology allows third-party pop-ups to be displayed on publishers’ websites without permission, which makes Gator a “parasite.”

The publishers are charging Gator with trademark infringement, unfair competition, trademark dilution, copyright infringement and unjust enrichment, among other accusations.

In response, Gator Corp., said yesterday afternoon that it might counter sue the publisher group.

"We believe the allegations made by the plaintiffs are utterly baseless," said Gator CEO Jeff McFadden in a prepared statement, "and we are highly confident that the business practices we've employed for years … are legal." He added, "While we understand why these plaintiffs/ competitors feel threatened by us, being a strong and thriving competitor isn't illegal."

This is the latest in a long legal saga. It all began when Gator sued the Interactive Advertising Bureau about 6 months ago after the trade group threatened to complain to federal regulators about its ad tactics. The two settled out of court, but Gator’s troubles didn’t stop there. Earlier this month, one of Gator's advertisers, DietWatch.com, was ordered to stop displaying ads that appeared when Gator users visited rival site WeightWatchers.com. The court ordered DietWatch to pay $25,000 to Weight Watchers.

We’ll have to wait and see what happens this time around.