Overture Sues Google

Sidd Finch
Saturday, April 06, 2002

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Overture Claims Infringement Of Really Good Idea

(Pasadena, Calif.) Overture Services, one of the few profitable Internet companies, has launched a lawsuit against Google Inc. claiming the new AdWords Select advertising program infringes on Overture's Pay-for-Performance search technologies. "We've spent millions on attorneys fees and lawyers fees," said spokesman William Tell from Overture. "We're not going to let some company with a bunch of hot shot programmers come in and steal our best ideas." The lawsuit further claimed that Google has failed to copy any of Overture's really stupid ideas including suing Disney, paying affiliates for generating traffic, and undertaking an Initial Public Offering (IPO) while losing money. Furthermore, the suit contends that if Google is going to benefit from Overture's patented technology, they should be required to follow in its footsteps with such money-losing tactics as partnering with Netscape, advertising on TV and buying companies to get into eCommerce. "We won't require them to sue competitors, because that's part of our competitive differentiation," Tell noted.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said he had never heard of Overture. "We looked them up and oddly enough there were no references to Overture anywhere on our site. However, we did find about 6 companies called Go, Goto or whatever, but I thought they all went broke." Schmidt said he was not concerned with the lawsuit. "We've reviewed 764,000 different patent applications in the last 0.13 seconds, and we feel confident that we have not infringed on any valid claims."

When asked why Overture would sue Google, Schmidt was non-plussed. "Search me," he said.

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About the author
Sidd Finch is a telecommunications industry reporter searching for new meaning on the web.