Estee Lauder, the cosmetic and fragrance giant, reportedly is suing Excite
Inc. and the Fragrance Counter, alleging trademark infringement over a key-
word purchase.
Estee Lauder contends that Excite sold the
advertising rights to its trademarked key words–“Estee Lauder” and
“Origins”–to a competitor,
without consent.
The lawsuit “is the beginning of what could predictably be a landslide of
lawsuits generated by a largely unregulated online advertising industry,” said
Namestake.com’s Bannerstake in a press
release about the case. Indeed, the
practice of buying a competitor’s keywords is not uncommon in the online ad
game.
When a user types in “Estee Lauder” or “Origins” on Excite, the search engine
serves up a banner advertisement for The Fragrance Counter Inc., the company
that purchased these key words. As a result, The Fragrance Counter, which has
no connection to Estee Lauder, allegedly capitalizes on Estee Lauder’s brand
name to draw consumers to its Web site.
We did such a search, and the Fragrance Counter ad did indeed come up. We were
able to get to the Estee Lauder main
page with just two clicks, however. Interestingly, one can’t buy the company’s
products there, and a spokesman confirmed that Estee Lauder has no e-commerce
site of its own.
The Wall Street Journal reported that
“in what
appears to be the first lawsuit of its kind, Estee Lauder is seeking an
injunction in federal court in New York against both Excite and Fragrance
Counter.
“We have a history of taking action against anyone who threatens the brands
and trademarks which are the foundation of this company,” Estee Lauder
President Fred H. Langhammer said in a statement. “We have filed this lawsuit
to protect both our trademarks and our consumers who may be misled.”
A Fragrance Counter spokesman was quoted by the Journal as saying that the
lawsuit, “although novel, is without merit.” Excite would not comment.
Meanwhile, Namestake.com issued a press
release
saying that its Bannerstake service
helps marketers
monitor and protect the integrity of their brand names in conjunction with the
common practice of keyword purchases on search engines. A free tool,
Bannerstake provides users with a display of the banner advertisements
associated with a keyword purchased on each of the major search engines.
