Sued for linking with keywords
An internet startup has been forced to settle out of court after they were threatened by a large law firm involving the way they were linking to pages on the law firms website.
Ars Technica reports on the rather strange case.
A tiny startup that was threatened by a massive law firm over nothing more than a humble hyperlink has been forced to settle and change its linking policies, handing Goliath the win in this gratuitous trademark case. Under the agreement, real estate startup BlockShopper can no longer include hyperlinks anywhere on its website to Jones Day, a massive Chicago law firm, except explicitly on URL text. Essentially, “jonesday.com” is okay, but not “blah blah blah”.
I’m thinking of changing the name of Blogstorm to “SEO” and then threatening legal action against any sites that refuse to change the anchor text of my links.
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Patrick Altoft is Director of Search at Branded3, a Leeds SEO & Digital Agency specialising in SEO, Web Design, Development & Social Media.
Comments
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The law firm in question should be subjected to a Google bomb and much link spam for their arrogance in attempting to bully their way on the Web. I’d like to see bring a suit for thousands of links originated from thousands of sources and IPs.
Hi Patrick,
‘I’m thinking of changing the name of Blogstorm to “SEO†and then threatening legal action against any sites that refuse to change the anchor text of my links.’
Seriously, though, the facts of this case are a little odd. You could argue that the website in question was trying to profit off of the brand value of Jones Day. In other words, this wasn’t just an ordinary linking situation.
I don’t agree with the judge’s decision. But the facts are so odd that I think it would be easy for another judge in a different case to ‘distinguish’ this decision and say it only applies when someone is trying to profit off of someone else’s brand. At least, I hope that’s what happens.
Anita
Oh! Now we only have to find out who’s the mysterious “linktsar” who points to innocent sites with harmful anchor texts – and sue him.. (see inkbuilding weaponized)
Interestingly (or not), the title of every single one of the links in the 100 pages of links that google caches for jonesday.com begins with the two words “Jones Day” – how tediously consistent. I’m glad I don’t maintain their site. I was hoping to find a google link that violated their requirements. Of course, the ars technica page you refer to does violate it and that is going to feature pretty highly in their web site stats this month.
Hmmm
Ridiculous – what a waste of time, effort and money. Now, if only the Internet could do to law firms what it has done to high street shops – Finish them off!
This is simply insane. Its too bad “david” didn’t have the cash to fight them in the long run. Imagine the revenue the law firm could bring in if they used their money for advertising rather than suing little people.