Google’s 10-Q Filing Assesses Threats of IP Lawsuits

By Dave Wieneke | in Copyright Law, Highlights, Search engines, Trademark law | 3 Dec 2008 | No Comments

Each quarter, Google issues a brief summary of the legal threats it faces through its quarterly SEC 10-Q filings.

Here’s that part of Google’s 10-Q Filing for September 30, 2008.

Note 11. Contingencies

Legal Matters

Companies have filed trademark infringement and related claims against us over the display of ads in response to user queries that include trademark terms. The outcomes of these lawsuits have differed from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. We currently have three cases pending at the European Court of Justice, which will address questions regarding whether advertisers and search engines can be held liable for use of trademarked terms in keyword advertising. We are litigating, or have recently litigated similar issues in other cases, in the U.S., Australia, Austria, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Israel, and Italy.

We have also had copyright claims filed against us by companies alleging that features of certain of our products and services, including Google Web Search, Google News, Google Video, Google Image Search, Google Book Search and YouTube, infringe their rights. In the U.S. we recently announced a settlement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (“AAP”) (see Note 15), however this class action is subject to approval by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and we are subject to additional claims with respect to Google Book Search in other parts of the world. Adverse results in these lawsuits may include awards of substantial monetary damages, costly royalty or licensing agreements or orders preventing us from offering certain functionalities, and may also result in a change in our business practices, which could result in a loss of revenue for us or otherwise harm our business. In addition, any time one of our products or services links to or hosts material in which others allegedly own copyrights, we face the risk of being sued for copyright infringement or related claims. Because these products and services comprise the majority of our products and services, our business could be harmed in the event of an adverse result in any of these claims.

…

Although the results of litigation and claims cannot be predicted with certainty, we believe that the final outcome of the matters discussed above will not have a material adverse effect on our business, consolidated financial position, results of operations and cash flows.

Google is a legal lightning rod because it’s highly profitable and extremely visible. That puts Google in the position of litigating many of Silicon Valley’s legal issues.  On the EFF blog, Fred von Lohmann suggests that the recent AAP settlement signals those days are ending.