Judy's Book gets trademark for 'Social Search'
Elinor Mills Former Staff Writer
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service and the Associated Press.
Judy's Book, an online yellow pages that features user reviews, said on Thursday that it has been granted the trademark for the term "Social Search." In a blog posting on the site, the company alleges that competitors, namely a "much bigger" unnamed company that is undoubtedly Yahoo, have been using the term social search to describe their products in violation of that trademark. Yahoo declined to comment on the matter. Rather than pick a legal fight with a Goliath, Judy's Book said it will instead rely on the faith of customers to choose its site as the best social networking-based local search. Smart move.