Posted 2:48 PM

A Better Thing to Do

Congress, which has been seemingly blackmailed into launching an investigation of electronic voting might better spend its time going on the record as regards trademarks and search engines. Geico, the auto insurance company controlled by Warren Buffet, is suing Google and Overture for allegedly violating its trademarks by selling them as keywords in their advertising programs.

No one ever (successfully) sued the phone company for placing competitors' ads next to yellow pages listings. No one ever (successfully) sued a newspaper or magazine for placing an ad near a story about a competing company.

There's simply no basis for the Geico suit. Its a waste of the court's time and my money, because the costs of this suit will be borne by the stockholders and customers of the organizations involved. In fact, when the judge throws out the suit (as any jurist with half a brain should), Geico's shareholders should sue the company for misuse of fiduciary trust, bringing the company name into disrepute and, generally, being know-nothing bozos. And the sooner congress steps up to address frivolous lawsuits like this the better off we'll be and the better off our economy will be.