American Airlines Drops Google Lawsuit

July 18, 2008

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The use of competitor keywords had American flying into the courtroom, but both sides taxied out with a quiet and confidential settlement.

A rap of the gavel sent Google and American Airlines on their way out of US District Court in Fort Worth, TX, with everything neatly zipped up and filed away from prying eyes. Unlike cases where Google fights it out over challenges to its ranking technology, competitor keyword suits against the search advertising company, like one by insurer Geico, tend to end this way.

Companies impacted by the practice disagree, and likely seethe when seeing those ads come into play. Until a challenge to the practice comes along and reaches a point where a court decides on it, rather than a settlement happening, businesses will have to keep outspending the competition for their own keywords in Google ads.