A Utah sports-floor maker subpoenaed Google recently as part of a trademark lawsuit against a competitor. In response, the Mountain View, Calif.-based search leader may have to turn over valuable information about its “sponsored links” advertising sales, according to a Santa Clara University law professor.
The subpoena arose in a type of trademark case that has caused federal courts across the country to disagree about what constitutes infringement in the Internet age. Trademark owners have sued competitors for buying up their trademarked phrases as keywords in Google’s AdWords program.
