Pasadena-based Overture, formerly known as GoTo, found success
before Google with its advertising model. Its advertisers bid for
placement on relevant search results and pay Overture only when
someone clicks on their listings.
The company was awarded a US patent in July 2001 that covers a
"system and method for influencing a position on a search result
list generated by a computer network search engine." It sued Google
for infringement in April 2002 over Google's AdWords service.
AdWords, launched in February 2002, also allows advertisers to
sponsor particular search terms so that, for a fee, whenever that
term is searched the advertiser's link will appear next to the
search results. Google has always denied infringement.
Yesterday Google and Yahoo! announced that the suit had been
dismissed and that Google will license the patents concerned. The
two companies also announced that they had resolved an ongoing
dispute relating to shares due to Yahoo! under an agreement made in
2000.
As part of the settlement Google has agreed to give 2.7 million
shares to Yahoo!, which has been an investor in Google since the
early days of the company.
According to reports, Google has revealed in a filing with the
US Securities and Exchange Commission that the settlement will
result in a charge of between $260 million and $290 million.
"We are pleased to have resolved these issues, and with the
terms of the agreement," Google spokesman Steve Langdon told
Reuters.
