American Blind & Wallpaper Factory has dropped its four-year legal case against Google, according to reports from Reuters.The reseller of window blinds had been targeting Google's advertising business, claiming that the search engine had abused trademarks by allowing rivals of companies to buy ads that appear when users browse the web for information on that business.
If the case had gone ahead, it would have been heard in a North Carolina court some time in November.
According to Reuters, the settlement is one of a series of lawsuits in which the search engine giant has successfully defended its practice of permitting advertisers to bid for search keywords for trademarked items.
Eric Goldman, an assistant law professor at Santa Clara University, commented in a legal blog: "According to a copy of the settlement agreement sent to me, Google isn't paying any money to settle the dispute and the settlement merely says that American Blinds won't sue Google so long as Google follows its current trademark policy."
He added that, despite spending "enormous" amounts of money on lawyers over the past four years, the blinds reseller gained "absolutely nothing from the litigation".
Mr Goldman also said that the capitulation of American Blinds may serve as a reminder that it can be irrational to bring lawsuits over keywords.
Google is currently in a similar legal battle with American Airlines, after the company accused the search engine of selling search words that involve the airline's name.
