The search engine company last week lost a motion in which it had asked the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas to dismiss the litigation.
Instead, the Court gave the go-ahead for the case to continue by setting dates for the schedule, along with pre-trial instructions. The trial is now due to start on October 14 2008.
American Airlines sued Google in August, claiming that the company infringed its trade marks by making its mark available to its competitors as a so-called adword to trigger their own advertising.
Google argued in its motion for dismissal that triggering an advert with an adword does not constitute “trade mark use” under the law. It also claimed that the law provides a trade mark holder with the right to prevent others from using its mark to identify the source of another’s product or services, but does not prohibit other uses of a trade mark – as in this case.
Judge John McBryde dismissed the motion in a one page document. He said: “After reviewing the motion, the court concludes that the motion to dismiss should be denied”.
In an emailed statement, American Airlines’ spokesman Tim Wagner said that the company was pleased by the decision.
He added: “American would not have brought its lawsuit against Google if we did not believe in the merits of our claims, and the court’s order today ensures that we will have an opportunity to develop and pursue those claims.”
But a spokesman for Google said that the company still believes that the lawsuit lacks merit. In a statement he said: “Google's trade mark policy strikes a proper balance between trade mark owners' interests and consumer choice and has been validated by prior court decisions.”
After the lawsuit was first filed in August, American Airlines said in a statement that the dispute centred on Google's process of allowing other companies to purchase the right to use American Airlines trade marks for internet searches. It went on to add: “It does not seek to prevent the display of search results that reflect consumers' interests or choices.”
The concept of search engines selling trade marked terms to their owners’ competitors has led to questions from some IP owners about the legality of the practice.
So far, however, few disputes have reached the courts. In September, American Blind & Wallpaper settled a lawsuit with Google over the use of adwords. At the time, Google said it regarded the American Blind’s decision to end the litigation as a victory.
