IP Democracy: Google Fights to Reshape Internet Law

The New York Times’ Katie Hafner has this interesting piece today about Google’s legal strategy and its expanding prowess in laws that govern the Internet, particularly intellectual property law. Unlike most big companies, Google doesn’t allow its lawyers to snuff out innovation — the company forges ahead in the hopes of establishing new law or new interpretations of the law that enable it to push the Internet’s boundaries.

Any company that is large and successful is going to attract lawsuits, and Google’s deep pockets make it an especially big target. But as it rushes to create innovative new services, Google sometimes operates in a way that almost seems to invite legal scrutiny.

A group of authors and publishers is challenging the company’s right to scan books that are still under copyright. A small Web site in California is suing Google because it was removed from the company’s search results. And European news agencies have sued over Google’s use of their headlines and photos in Google News.

In these cases and others, potential legal problems seem to give the company little pause before it plunges into new ventures.

Google’s legal team now boasts 100 in-house lawyers, plus outside law firms, and the company pushes hard and early to dismiss lawsuits or seeks summary judgment at the outset to avoid having to spill trade secrets during discovery. As is true with its engineering staff, Google hires the best and the brightest young lawyers to fight on its behalf.

It’s no surprise, then, that any legal challenge against Google is going to be an uphill battle.

“We’ve got a formidable legal team, but obviously it’s nowhere near the unlimited resources of Google,” said David A. Milman, the chief executive of Rescuecom, a nationwide computer repair company that sued Google on trademark infringement grounds similar to Geico’s — and quickly lost. The company said that it would appeal the decision.

“People say you can’t fight the government,” Mr. Milman said. “Google, in this case, is very similar to the government. They’re the government of the Internet.”

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on October 23, 2006 7:42 AM to IP Democracy