Judge denies motion for summary judgment against Google

Judge denies motion for summary judgment vs Google

May 27, 2005

Get the most dependable Linux or Windows Web hosting at the lowest cost. Domain names at only $5.99 for a whole year. Click here to learn more.

A district court in Northern California has ruled that a lawsuit accusing Google of misappropriating trade secrets from Digital Envoy can proceed.

Last Friday, the U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., denied Mountain View, Calif.-based Google's motion for summary judgment on claims that the search giant breached its contract with Digital Envoy, based in Georgia.

However, the court dismissed several of Digital Envoy's charges, including claims of unfair competition, on the grounds that the two parties were not direct rivals, according to the court document.

The two companies had a licensing agreement as far back as 2000 that relied on Digital's IP technology to pinpoint the physical location of Web visitors for Google so that it could better serve sponsored search results. (The parties no longer work together.)

Digital balked when in 2003, Google broadened use of the geo-location technology to include serving targeted advertisements onto third-party sites in a program called Google AdSense.

"Based on the language contained in the license and the discussions between the parties regarding Google's use of Digital's technology, such utilization might be characterized as a 'sharing,' 'distributing,' or 'otherwise making available,' of Digital's proprietary technology to third parties, as prohibited under the terms of the license," according to the ruling.

"Since the language contained in the license is susceptible to more than one reasonable interpretation, summary judgment is improper," according to the ruling.

Google has said previously that the case lacks merit. According to the court document, Google argued that it held "all you can eat" licensing rights to use Digital Envoy's technology and that it never physically shared the software with third parties.

Digital Envoy first filed its lawsuit in March 2004 in U.S. District Court in Atlanta. A month later, Google countersued, asking for declaratory judgment in the case. The suit was moved from Georgia to San Jose.

Source: ZD Net India

Read Serge Thibodeau's daily blogs on search engines at Serge Thibodeau Live. We strongly suggest you bookmark our web site by clicking here.

Tired of receiving unwanted spam in your in box? Get SpamArrest� and put a stop to all that SPAM. Click here and get rid of SPAM forever!

Get your business or company listed in the Global Business Listing directory and increase your business. It takes less then 24 hours to get a premium listing in the most powerful business search engine there is. Click here to find out all about it.

Rank for $ales strongly recommends the use of WordTracker to effectively identify all your right industry keywords. Accurate identification of the right keywords and key phrases used in your industry is the first basic step in any serious search engine optimization program. Click here to start your keyword and key phrase research.

Pay Rank for $ales securely with your Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express credit card through the secure PayPal network. (Note: PayPal is an eBay company, and maintains a net free capital of US $ 50 Million).

You can link to the Rank for Sales web site as much as you like. Read our section on how your company can participate in our reciprocal link exchange program and increase your rankings in all the major search engines such as Google, AltaVista, Yahoo and all the others.

Powered by Sun Hosting Sponsored by Avantex Traffic stats by Site Clicks�

Site design by Mtl. Web D. Sponsored by Press Broadcast Sponsored by Blog Hosting.ca

Call Rank for Sales toll free from anywhere in the US or Canada: 1-800-631-3221
email: info@rankforsales.com