In March, the state of Utah passed the Trademark Protection Act, designed to protect companies that register their trademarks in Utah.Essentially, the law creates a database of trademarked terms, and prevents online advertisers from using those terms as keywords. In other words, if you're Mazda, you can't buy paid advertisements from Google that will show up when users search for Pontiac.
While some bloggers have declared that the bill shows an inherent misunderstanding of how the web works (every company that ever buys keyword advertising will have to check with Utah's state registry to make sure the term isn't trademarked in that state), it's amusing that the Utah lawmakers behind the bill have taken to the blogosphere to defend the law.
[via Slashdot]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-10-2007 @ 10:09PM
blackcoffeenosugar said...
I am wondering how this is going to work. Imagine if Apple or Microsoft were from Utah, does this mean farmers can't advertise their apples, and window installers can't advertise their windows? Afterall how are you going to do so without the words apple and windows?
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