[cwkoss]

It's a protection racket that allows others to use your trademark to sell their product if you don't outbid them.

[camhart]

I don't think you can use a trademark in ad text. But companies still try to wiggle around this.

[cwkoss]

But you can use a trademark as an ad targeting term... which feels a little trademark-violation-y to me.

[cwkoss]

https://veritasbusinesslaw.com/trademark-and-google-adwords/

Looks like several companies have tried to sue Google for this, but Google threw a lot of money at the problems to prevent them from winning.

[nradov]

Trademark litigation can be expensive, but you can't win every trademark case just by throwing more money at the problem. If there was a legitimate IP violation then someone would have won a case against Google by now.

[cwkoss]

I think that's a very reductive take.

The idea that I can buy placement in searches for a competitor is not clearly a "legitimate IP violation" but I think it's also not clearly "not a legitimate IP violation".

Is it good for society that I can redirect users who intend to be looking for a competitors' products? Its a complex subject that I'm not sure the courts have examined the repercussions of properly. The counterfeit and deception arguments in some of the suits certainly seem like they have some merit to me.

[nradov]

Courts are responsible for interpreting the law, not for considering repercussions. If you think the current situation isn't good for society then take that up with the legislative branch, not the judicial branch.