Tuesday, December 07, 2004

How Far Will It Go??

Is this similar to the movie studios inserting one ad for every 100 frames to get you to subliminally desire the popcorn?

Biopharm Company Alleges Rival Used Trademark in Web Site Metatags

In an attempt to lure Internet traffic away from competitors, a Coral Gables, Fla., biopharmaceutical company allegedly embedded trademarked names of five other biopharmaceutical companies in the coding of its Web site, a South Carolina company alleges in a suit filed in Miami.

Blood Diagnostics Inc., one of the five companies, claims that Health Coalition Inc. used Blood Diagnostics' trademarked name "BDI Blood Diagnostics" as a metatag, a form of text code, on its Web site, www.healthcoalition.com, in a calculated effort to harm the company's business.

The expert found the Blood Diagnostics trademark as metatag in the HCI site's coding, as well as the names of four other biopharmaceutical companies: Biomed, ASD, NSS and FFF Enterprises, according to the complaint. Blood Diagnostics alleges that HCI's use of its trademark as a metatag has damaged its business and infringed on its trademark.

The men's magazine Playboy led the charge in enforcing its trademark online, filing suit against several pornographic Web sites that used Playboy as a metatag.

Since search engines like Google search the actual text of sites, and not metatags, some Web site designers are relying on slipping others' trademarks in the site by using the "white on white" technique, Lewis said

By writing a trademark in the same color text as the background, the text becomes invisible. However, search engines are colorblind and can still pick up the text.



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