This week Video Professor filed suit against Amazon for trademark infringement for using the phrase “video professor” in their pay-per-click ads on Google. They claim that the search phrase was directing visitors to a site that sold instructional videos by Professor Teaches and was misleading to the consumer.
Oh Amazon, don’t you know you shouldn’t do that?
VPI (Video Professor, Inc.) explained in their complaint that once the user clicks on the Amazon.com link for the search term “video professor” they are taken to a page with the name Video Professor at the top, but are mislead as the page only sells Professor Teaches CD-ROMS. They claim that the consumer may purchase the Professor Teaches product under the assumption that it is created by Video Professor.
I wonder how well this will hold up in court, since it is a case based on assumptions of the consumer’s behavior. Someone may have Googled “video professor” simply looking for instructional videos, not videos specially made by VPI. Additionally, they may use the same search term to view similar products and to do a little comparison shopping.
Another issue that may work in Amazon’s favor is the fact that both products, Video Professor and Professor Teaches, are featured on the same landing page. Therefore, Amazon could argue that they used the search phrase for legitimate product placement and accurately placed the consumer on the correct page.
When I Googled “video professor” this morning and clicked on the Amazon ad, I landed on a page with Video Professor as the title but didn’t see a Video Professor product until I scrolled down to the 12th item listed.
We’ll have to see who picked the better lawyer.
Amazon isn’t the first to make this mistake, here are some similar lawsuits.
