Over the last few months we’ve been tracking a lawsuit between online marketing guru Jeremy Schoemaker and a Google employee named Keyen Farrell. This week comes news that Schoemaker has settled the case with Farrell, though details are scant. Money changed hands (in Schoemaker’s favor), but Schoemaker signed a confidentially agreement as part of the settlement that forbids him from discussing the matter further. You can see his full statement below.
It’s been a long road to get here. Schoemaker originally filed suit against Farrell last April, when Farrell used Schoemaker’s trademarked term “Shoemoney” in his ad copy β a breach of Google’s terms of service. The case was interesting not just because of Schoemaker’s notoriety, but because Farrell is an employee working out of Google’s New York office. Given his position, it was feasible that Farrell had used his access at Google to somehow bypass the system’s trademark filters (among other things), though Google denied this and attributed the fault to human error.
Farrell subsequently filed an affadavit stating he didn’t know that the term was trademarked and blamed a failure of Google’s text filters. In June, Farrell then went on to counter-sue Schoemaker for defamation. Farrell dropped half of the counter-suit a month ago, and soon thereafter approached Schoemaker about a settlement.
Yesterday, Schoemaker posted the following to his blog:
For those that have been following my lawsuit against the Farrells, there have been several developments. A few weeks ago, after originally withdrawing half of their defamation lawsuit against me, the Farrells withdrew the other half and completely abandoned their counter-suit against me. I was then approached about the possibility of accepting a settlement offer in exchange for me dismissing my trademark infringement case against the Farrells. Unfortunately, Iβm not allowed to write about the nature of the settlement talks or the amount of money that was offered because the settlement offers that were made required confidentiality.
I can say that my lawsuit against the Farrells was settled. This has been a real educational experience for me. I was looking forward to getting my day in court, but I can also say that I am very happy with the final result. There is not a whole lot more I am allowed to discuss.
Keyen is a total sleaze who betrayed customers and fellow Googlers.
You need to leave.
You have no career here.
who cares. wow another geek battle over a stupid word. Heres an idea. Get a life.
confidentiality is a corrupt practice. Meanwhile the guilty party gets to keep its fraudulent reputation.
This guy should of shot down the confidentiality request.
Sounds like Shoe got payed off. Nonetheless I am not surprised by the result.
As he should have, the details of what Google allows its employees to do to allow them to compete directly against others is a huge conflict of interest.
Jon
It sounds like he received a fair bit of money in return for dropping the lawsuit. Otherwise he wouldn’t have let it go so easily.
Tricky business these days. Free speech vs. copyright infringement vs. advertising. I suppose this is not the first or the last of these cases.
How can that dude still work at Google without feeling like a total bitchboy?
Talk about CAREER FAIL!
I would imagine that he is an ex employee by now
Who’s searching for “shoe money” anyway?
Amazon affiliates?
Not if your state taxes affiliates!
I wonder if we will ever get to know the truth…
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Just what does this have to do with the story?
I’m not a fan of people who take the money and clam up. Would love to see more people take it all the way through a very public court proceeding. Schoemaker could afford it but sold out.
He sues Ferrell for copyright infringement, yet all along, Schoemaker’s logo is a modified version of Superman’s shield. Ironic much?
I guess google wanted to protect its reputation and Jeremy got good cash for not washing the dirty linen in public.
So what is the learning for all of us here ?
This was settled for $1.
Both have had to cover their own attorney expenses which in the case of Farrel is a few thousand dollars and the case of Shoemoney is couple of hundred dollars (tier c lawyers in Nebraska).
Since the beginning Shoemoney only wanted publicity.
I disagree, otherwise they would have dropped their suits at the same time.
Shoemaker sold his soul.
Well, good for Jeremy, bad for the industry.
We need these cases to go to court, we need precedent. There is a big reason why Google will continue to fight and settle. (We do not know if the $ came from Keyen Farrell or Google. Schoemaker’s bank account does not care.)
I hope one day a major brand has the resources to take this all the way. American Blinds & Wallpaper Factory settled after 4 years.
Hey TechCrunh, how about some investigative reporting on the different PPC trademark cases vs. Google?
Julio Foolio!
i like
I am sure this was an educational experience for Shoemaker. He went to litigation with the wrong person before he had the facts. He thought he had the Golden Goose and ended up laying an egg. Itβs obvious that this was a Google mistake that was feed by media frenzy and the anti-Google crowd. It should have never ended up in litigation. Hopefully, a wise business decision to settle for what I bet was a nominal amount rather than make some more lawyers rich, will end it now in a face saving manner for Shoemaker.
SUEMONEY!
Does this mean Google employees regularly penalize their enemies websites in the search results….
I recognize it’s a lot more interesting to create an “evil doer” within a mega corporation plot than accept the boring reality that systems designed by people screw but it’s pretty evident that this is what happened. Google as sophisticated as it is, depends on systems built, validated and operated by people on multiple continents across the globe. … And people screw up so systems screw up and, as is often the case, the innocent suffer.
Google investigated, found there was a problem with the system, exonerated the employee and fixed the system. Nothing I have read indicated they issued an apology but this is a litigious environment so they are probably wary(but still should apologize to BOTH parties because it’s the right thing to do and they should set an example).
The parties in the suit, which played out in the public arena of cyberspace, decided that it was more cost effective to settle than to first kill all the lawyers(to paraphrase). The presumably wronged party accepted a settlement (unfortunately, not from Google who apparently admitted a systems error and could well afford it) and life goes on. The only thing missing is that apology which, in a more perfect world, would be forth coming.
Too bad, can’t we all just get along?
So, he got the money? Maybe lawsuits could be his next core business!
Wow, such an EDUCATED reply. The truth must hurt.
I guess a geek can sound like a redneck. I don’t think Google or Shoemaker needs a coward like you to defend them.
What established success? You mean like trying to get get money for making a big deal out of nothing. His only claim to fame is trying to get money by suing people for the publicity.