Company Sued for Including Competitor’s Names in Meta Tags

Author: Anne P. Mitchell 12/8/2004 | 12/8/2004 | Leave a comment

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Blood Diagonostics, a South Carolina biopharmaceutical firm, has sued Health Coalition Inc. (“HCI”), claiming that HCI has used Blood Diagonostic’s name in meta tags on the HCI website. Blood Diagnostics claims that the use was a calculated act on the part of HCI intended to harm Blood Diagnostic’s business.

According to an article in Law.com, although there is plenty of precedence where courts have slapped down meta tags which infringe on the trademarks of others (webmasters take note), this case is unique because there is a long history of ongoing animosity between the parties. This could play into a determination of damages should Blood Diagnostics prevail.

According to a computer law expert attorney quoted in the article, Samuel Lewis, the new trend is actually away from meta tags, and towards “white on white” text, in an effort to woo search engines which no longer give much weight to meta tags.

However, in any case, padding your website with a competitor’s trademarks is a bad idea.

Don’t do it.

You can read more about this at Law.com.

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