Google gets legal

October 23, 2006
by Latitude

The New York Times has an interesting look at the various legal entanglements of search giant Google. The piece is not in-depth, nor is most of the analysis, but it is worth reading for an overview of Google’s approach to lawsuits and other legal issues. (The accompanying photograph of two young, casually dressed Google lawyers chilling out on the office rug is pretty cute – and very Google – too.)

Since 2001, the company’s legal team has grown from one lawyer to nearly 100 worldwide, plus an assortment of law firms from which Google retains counsel. A great deal of the companies and individuals who are suing Google are seeking damages, but as the article points out, “money is not always the issue”:

There are several cases, focusing on questions of intellectual property and trademark protection, that challenge Google’s whole way of doing business. These plaintiffs are suing Google to protect their well-established practices; their interest is not so much in remuneration as it is in getting Google to change its approach. Peter S. Menell, a professor at Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, said that although Google’s well-established core search functions are not at risk, “there are a number of areas now in which new and exciting business models are being threatened.”

What it does boil down to, though, is that Google needs to take most seriously those cases which threaten the company’s bread and butter: paid search.