Google's keyword advertising system faces a number of legal challenges in the US and in Europe over the extent to which it breaches trade mark rights. Rescuecom's case was one of the oldest and so one of the furthest-advanced, but it has now been dropped.
Companies that want to advertise next to the results from Google's search engine pay for their ads to appear when a chosen term is searched for by a user. Those whose ads are relevant and who pay the highest in relation to that term have their adverts placed most prominently.
Rescuecom objected to the fact that competitors could pay to have their ads displayed when a Google user searched for the term 'Rescuecom' and claimed that Google violated its trade mark rights by allowing other people to purchase its trade marked term as a keyword.
A New York court said in 2006 that the activity was not against the law because trade mark law only controlled the use "in trade" of a term, and that Google was not using the term in trade.
That ruling was overturned on appeal last year, though, and the case returned to the original court for a full hearing. Rescuecom has now abandoned its suit.
Though Rescuecom said that it can "declare victory" in its dispute with Google and can therefore withdraw the suit, it has not won any extra concessions from Google on the issue.
In fact Rescuecom has now become involved in another keyword suit, but on the other side of the issue. It has been sued by competitor Best Buy, which claims that it is using its trade marked terms to trigger Rescuecom ads.
Best Buy, whose PC support business is called the Geek Squad, is making similar claims against Rescuecom that it made against Google.
"Rescuecom seeks declaratory judgment that it may use the term 'geek squad' as a keyword for a sponsored link which clearly engages in comparative advertising," said a Rescuecom statement.
"We've accomplished most of what we wanted to accomplish with this action against Google," said Rescuecom chief executive David Milman. "The Second Circuit's decision clearly rejected Google's argument that its sale of trademarks as keywords deserves some special protection from Trademark Law. Clear and non-confusing use of trademarks on the Internet – such as Rescuecom's own advertising – should be permitted. However, the use of trademarks which is not clear and can confuse consumers, violates US Trademark law and is not in anyone's best interests."
Google's policy of allowing one company to buy another's trade marked terms as keywords used to operate only in the US and Canada, but it was extended in 2008 to the UK and Ireland.
Advertisers are eagerly awaiting a ruling due later this month on the issue from the European Union's top court, the Court of Justice.
The Court will rule on three cases together and will decide whether the use of another company's brand as a keyword is a breach of that firm's trade mark rights.
Already the Court's legal advisor, one of its advocates general, has said that the use of keywords is allowed because to ban it would be to expand the scope of trade mark protection too far, and that such keyword activity does not confuse consumers.
That ruling is due on 23rd March.