ShoeMoney Sues Google Employee For AdWords Violations
TechCrunch recently ran a story about my arch rival Shomoney suing an employee of Google for violating the AdWords T&C.
Google has a policy to protect trademarked names from being bid on. For example, Google won’t allow you to use the word “Dell” in any AdWords ad because it’s a registered trademark. Unless you get permission from Dell, you can’t use it. Shoe has a registered trademark for “Shoemoney” to protect him against dirty marketers trying to profit from his name.
About four months ago, shoe noticed ads for “Shoemoney” that point to the domain myincentivewebsite.com. Shoe’s attempts to contact Google and the offending parties went unanswered (so did a C&D). It took a court ordered subpoena to find out who the owner of the site was because the domain was set to private.
With his real name in hand, Schoemaker finally managed to get in touch with the alleged violator. The defendant claimed to be unaware of any breaches of Google’s Terms of Service or the Shoemoney trademark. Schoemaker isn’t convinced, stating that “he played dumb every time and was very deceitful with his responses”. To make matters worse, the defendant attempted to clear his name by sending Schoemaker a screenshot of his account featuring a list of keywords he was targeting – a list that Schoemaker says was incredibly similar to his own.
His Name Is Keyen Farrell
I decided to do a little more digging into the case and found out the person Shoe is suing is Keyen Farrell and his farther, John Farrell. A source, who shall remain nameless, forwarded me a copy of the Shoemoney complaint. You can read it here (right click and save as).
It appears the Keyen Farrel is an employee of Google. His profile at LinkedIn states that he is an AdWords Account Strategist. However, the title has since been removed. Mr. Farrell was featured in this article stating he makes up to $45,000 per month bidding on Google AdWords.
If Mr. Farrell is indeed a Google AdWords employee, then he must know that you can’t bid on trademarked keywords. Also, the keyword Shoemoney has already been placed into Google’s filter so it won’t show up in an ad. It would require someone with inside access to be able to circumvent it. The fact that Mr. Farrell’s keyword list is very similar Shoe’s may mean he used his position at Google to take a peek at Shoe’s keyword list.
I am unclear as to whether Google has a policy that prevents its account strategists from bidding on AdWords. If it doesn’t, it should definitely put one in place. The conflict of interest is pretty clear and the abuse of power can be pretty high.
If Mr. Farrell does indeed work for Google, I have a feeling he won’t be working there much longer. That will be the least of his worries once Shoe gets done with him. I’ll add to this post as the case develops.
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- ShoeMoney Media Group Vs Keyen Farrell - ShoeMoney® - April 9, 2009 at 4:54 am
- ShoeMoney, su demanda y el escándalo en Google AdWords | JuanCash.com - April 9, 2009 at 4:31 pm
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I am glade that he finally found the person. Hopefully this guy will pay Jeremy for the damages that he caused. Greg Ellison
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Nice! Perhaps there will be justice served for marketers everywhere!
Chris Jacobson’s last blog post: Dissecting the Value of Twitter Followers vs. Blog Readers
I hope Keyen Farrell does get crapped soon.
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I doubt that he will pay for the damage that he caused.
The end result will probably be him fired and banned from Google Adwords for the rest of his life
Ryan McLean’s last blog post: Creating Ebooks Easily – How To Make Money With a Flop
This is a good lesson for all shady marketers, you need to cover your tracks better. With Google Cash Detective there should be many opportunities to copycat successful campaigns. I believe that the industry is moving towards shrinking margins and the way to make money in the future is to create online properties, just like Shoemoney is doing.
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Google should definitely fire this guy.
What amazes me is the websites he’s sending these visitors to looks so lame.
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When you are setting up thousands of scam sites you don’t have time to make them look pretty~ ha
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Keyen needs to be fired now. He’s bad for business & I doubt Google would want their name to be tainted some more because of him.
I’m glad Shoe didn’t just sit back & let him get away with it. Keyen thought he was being slick, but it got him nowhere in the end.
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I am not aware of that policy!
To think that he is an employee of Google then he claims that he didn’t that policy. Certainly he is lying.
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i can’t believe that google Employees will be risk for just 45000 one month, their salary Much higher than the amount.
wosoho’s last blog post: Google怎么了？
I don’t know what fantasy land you live in, but Google employees don’t make all that much. $100K or so is the average, which this guy is generating in just over 2 months!
In his eyes, I guess the risk was worth it. Crazy stuff!
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You got a point…Keyen Farrell thought he could get away with it, and didn’t think ShoeMoney would be on top of things.
Well…he was definitely wrong, and the risk I guess wasn’t worth it. ShoeMoney sure knows his stuff.
Shoemoney’s ties to Google are kind of ironic. On one hand he’s most famous for the picture with the $136,000,000 check from Google, but on the other hand he’s not afraid to sue their employee for stealing information. Shoe certainly knows his rules, so he’ll be around for a while. Also, what’s the deal with the rumor on Google buying Twitter? Is that dead?
killerbuffalo.com’s last blog post: On Global Poverty: The one that got away
Upon first reading, the Farrell landing page reminded me of the Shoemoney style. I thought, wrongly as it turns out, that the bro-ha-ha was an exercise in self-promotion. But then I always look for the funny side.
I hope you have a very happy day.
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No wonder many were fooled to think it as legit albeit goofy advertising. Now, what do you think, is the Joaquin Phoenix really marketing something or has he lost his marbles? It could also be just clever marketing.
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Wow, crazy detective work; this was a great piece. Makes you wonder how many other instances of manipulation and profiteering may be occuring at major search outfits that have gone undetected. Google is generally a highly ethical company (at least they could do much worse, comparatively speaking), and I’m sure they’ll react strongly and insert safeguards if this transpired as you suspect.
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Hopefully Shoe can resolve this matter and get back his hard earned image without it being tarnished be scammers. This case is going to damage Google and hopefully will change they way Google operated.
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Google is a highly ethical company. I am pretty sure that the employee will be fired.
Shoemoney is justified by suing Google though. Such mistakes take consumer confidence off your brand.
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Wow, that sounds like a HUGE problem. I hate dealing with trademarks and intellectual property issues, because it’s all part-and-parcel of unscrupulous people and their actions. If the weasels didn’t exist, we wouldn’t have to worry about this junk. Good luck Shoe. And thanks for sharing this John, even if Shoe is your archrival
Good on Shoemoney for suing, this guy needs to be sorted out using his position in Google and breaking the rules of the company he works for!
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I think it is great that Shoe has pursued this as it acts as a deterrent to others wishing to act in a dishonest way.
Google need to be clear about what their employee policies are and maybe make them public in this situation to protect their brand.
Thanks for sharing.
Karl
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Lets hope this case gets solved and quickly. Because the defendant does not even has a case. This is a win win situation for Shoemoney.
Also lets hope Google takes this case seriously and that justice is done and soon. Cause, justice delayed is justice denied.
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Nice move from Schoemaker. Put Keyen Farrell and others like him away.
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Obviously Google has to tighten its internal controls after this incident. But the fact that this person has not been fired yet shows Google has not taken this case as serious as it should.
Peter Lee
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Good for ShoeMoney to sue! When will people realize that there will always be consequences for their bad actions? Karma!
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Incredible. How can this happened. This proves, that inside of Google there is no control over a keys persons like this one.
Hopefully they will react and put some sort of control on a strategic persons like this.
Vladan’s last blog post: How to connect and use VM Explorer from Trilead
Well this one is really shocking news. But I think shoemoney is always in some kind of controversy.
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this is interesting….
Kevin’s last blog post: Amazon Becomes the First Retailer to Offer Codes For Downloading Xbox LIVE Games
This is crazy stuff. Google employees spending their time running Google Adwords campaigns!!! WHAT? Seems on the level of insider trading to me.
It just amazes me what people will do to make a buck.
Justice may be blind, but it sees in the dark.
I’m actually…sadly not surprised. There was an AOL employee who had sold I think over 92 million AOL email addresses for 50k to spammers a couple years ago..
There are people like this all over the workforce..
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What’s even more sad is that more people like this are entering the workforce constantly. American dream that was about prosperity through hard work has transformed into prosperity through any possible quick and easy method. Large market for affiliate marketers out there.
Jake Stone’s last blog post: Jon Waraas – a man in need
No doubt Shoe will be able to defend his brand,win the process and gain more popularity.
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This is the most impressive campaign Shoemoney has ever put up. A truly astonishing brilliant stunt.
True story is that Farrell was leaving Google is he is now working for Shoe. Mark my words.
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Talk about taking advantage of your position. Well Google will surely fire him.
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Over the years I have had many accounts with Adwords, spending a small fortune with the Adwords service. So naturally I have picked up many cost saving tricks. I am aware that most people feel Adwords costs too much and delivers little results, this is completely untrue.
Shoe will win this for sure!
Hi John, I just saw this post from Shoe’s blog. Let us keep updated with regards to the development of this case. I’m very sure Shoe will emerge as the winning entity.
Ye should punished those who breaks the law. I’m sure his well aware of the Terms and Condition of Big G.
he will suffer of coz..huhu
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Good that the thief does not work with google any more. and $45k per month???? This is so much!!!
Seriously, you thought no one would notice??? And a Google employee no less.
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I Shoe suing Keyen Farrell and his father alone, or is he suing Google as well? Perhaps Shoe has a case for vicarious liability. I’m not sure if he’d have to prove that Farrell was acting within the scope of employment to have a case against Google as well. This whole thing is quite fishy.
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Shoe is suing Keyen only. He is holding Google harmless in this affair.
Hey john is this a site of yours? http://johnchownews.blogspot.com/
–I randomly stumbled upon it..
Melody’s last blog post: Winning the AzoogleAds/Playboy T-shirt Design Contest…
Now this makes me think twice in using Adwords, I guess Google will fire this guy or can really damage Google image.
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And I think that Google need to keep a close eye on their other employees.
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john if your name ‘JOHNCHOW’ is also a brand like ‘SHOEMONEY’ the i think you can also sue adword because they are using your name also i have send you an email with an image of that ad..
reply me if its useful for you….
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i think ,Keyen Farrell does get crapped soon.great post dear…keep it up.
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Great article, John. I didn’t realize ShoeMoney was your arch rival. I thought you guys were buddies (i.e. strategic partners)? Also, you misspelled a word. Farther => Father.
Wow… That’s fierce of Shoemoney!
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