Google, the enormous and successful search engine, is suing Pacific WebWorks, a software development firm in Utah, for Federal Trademark Infringement because Pacific Web Works is posting scams on the internet using Google's logo.
According to Law.com, infringement is taking credit for patents (protected inventions) and copyrights (protected writings or graphics) that belong to someone else, the improper use of a patent, writing, graphic or trademark without permission, without notice, and especially without contracting for payment of a royalty. Even though the infringement may be accidental, the party infringing is responsible to pay the original patent or copyright owner substantial damage fees, which can be the normal royalty or as much as the infringers' accumulated gross profits. Pacific WebWorks is using Google’s logo on their without permission in their advertisements, and are therefore infringing Google’s copyright.
Pacific Web Works is one of many companies that scams people by posting ads like "Use Google to make 1000’s of dollars" or "Easy Cash with Google: You Could be Making up to $978 a Day Working from Home!" People searching for these jobs foolishly click on the advertisement and these companies manage to rob them of a lot of money. They do this by having you pay small fee for shipping charges for a start-up kit, and then without the card holder’s knowledge, they charge a ridiculously large sum of money monthly.
Google is right for suing these companies because they should not be using Google's name especially if they are pulling a scam. This could be bad business for Google and people might not use their search engine anymore as a result. The real question, however, is why people are actually clicking on these ads believing that these job offers are legitimate. According to the Better Business Bureau, last year there were 3,539 complaints about work-at-home companies. Of these complaints, 382 were about Pacific WebWorks. Anybody with a brain could probably tell that these deals are too good to be true, and after clicking on it, why would they give their information to a company that they barley know anything about? For example, a victim of these scams was able to stop her credit card before the company billed her for the monthly fees. However she said, "I am frustrated and sick of all the scams." It sounds like this has happened to this woman multiple times so why would she do it again? People need to learn from their mistakes in order to avoid the same scam trick repeatedly.
Google is trying to prevent people from entering into these scams by warning people in their blog. Still, it will be difficult to get rid of all of them. They say that they can't control what will pop up. They also admit that they can't guarantee that people won't use their logo on these scams. Google warns its users to be skeptical of names like Google Adwork, Google ATM, Google Biz Kit, Google Cash, Earn Google Cash Kit, Google Fortune, Google Marketing Kit, Google Profits, The Home Business Kit for Google, Google StartUp Kit, and Google Works. These names are other scams like Pacific WebWorks.
In the end, the most important lesson is to be careful when on the internet. Don't go to sites you don't know about, and don't click on something you are skeptical of. If it's not a scam, then they are likely just trying to plant a virus. If you use caution when surfing the web, you can avoid these scams.
According to Law.com, infringement is taking credit for patents (protected inventions) and copyrights (protected writings or graphics) that belong to someone else, the improper use of a patent, writing, graphic or trademark without permission, without notice, and especially without contracting for payment of a royalty. Even though the infringement may be accidental, the party infringing is responsible to pay the original patent or copyright owner substantial damage fees, which can be the normal royalty or as much as the infringers' accumulated gross profits. Pacific WebWorks is using Google’s logo on their without permission in their advertisements, and are therefore infringing Google’s copyright.
Pacific Web Works is one of many companies that scams people by posting ads like "Use Google to make 1000’s of dollars" or "Easy Cash with Google: You Could be Making up to $978 a Day Working from Home!" People searching for these jobs foolishly click on the advertisement and these companies manage to rob them of a lot of money. They do this by having you pay small fee for shipping charges for a start-up kit, and then without the card holder’s knowledge, they charge a ridiculously large sum of money monthly.
Google is right for suing these companies because they should not be using Google's name especially if they are pulling a scam. This could be bad business for Google and people might not use their search engine anymore as a result. The real question, however, is why people are actually clicking on these ads believing that these job offers are legitimate. According to the Better Business Bureau, last year there were 3,539 complaints about work-at-home companies. Of these complaints, 382 were about Pacific WebWorks. Anybody with a brain could probably tell that these deals are too good to be true, and after clicking on it, why would they give their information to a company that they barley know anything about? For example, a victim of these scams was able to stop her credit card before the company billed her for the monthly fees. However she said, "I am frustrated and sick of all the scams." It sounds like this has happened to this woman multiple times so why would she do it again? People need to learn from their mistakes in order to avoid the same scam trick repeatedly.
Google is trying to prevent people from entering into these scams by warning people in their blog. Still, it will be difficult to get rid of all of them. They say that they can't control what will pop up. They also admit that they can't guarantee that people won't use their logo on these scams. Google warns its users to be skeptical of names like Google Adwork, Google ATM, Google Biz Kit, Google Cash, Earn Google Cash Kit, Google Fortune, Google Marketing Kit, Google Profits, The Home Business Kit for Google, Google StartUp Kit, and Google Works. These names are other scams like Pacific WebWorks.
In the end, the most important lesson is to be careful when on the internet. Don't go to sites you don't know about, and don't click on something you are skeptical of. If it's not a scam, then they are likely just trying to plant a virus. If you use caution when surfing the web, you can avoid these scams.
No comments:
Post a Comment