Summary: A close(r) look at the Rosetta Stone case reveals Microsoft-funded lobbyists

ACCORDING TO this new blog post and its interpretation, Microsoft lobbyists such as Association for Competitive Technology and Business Software Association (in addition to other Microsoft allies) are getting busy with anti-Google litigation:

There are some other companies that have sued over trademark keyword advertising in the past... And then there's the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) and the Business Software Association (BSA), both of which have very strong ties to Microsoft. This seems really strange, because a loss for Google here would absolutely harm Microsoft. As Eric Goldman notes:

Could Microsoft be foolish enough to use this lawsuit as an opportunity to tweak its arch-enemy Google, even though an adverse ruling in this case would almost unquestionably be against Bing's best interests?

Even more bizarre is that eBay also has pretty strong ties to ACT, and eBay has been fighting against a long series of ridiculous secondary liability trademark claims from luxury goods makers (many of whom signed on to the exact same brief by ACT. It would appear that this brief actually appears to go against many of the best interests of ACT's largest members. A very strange move by ACT who should know better.

The author may not be familiar with ACT's history. It's a front for Microsoft with roots in ATL (which sent letters on behalf of dead people, supposedly supporting Microsoft). If anything, the above helps prove that eBay is more of a dilution-type decoy to ACT, which only really serves Microsoft's agenda (and gets paid by Microsoft) based on what we have observed and documented over the years. ⬆