ServersCheck BVBA sues Google over Google Suggest feature

Belgian company ServersCheck BVBA has filed a lawsuit against Google claiming that their Google Suggest service directed the users to websites offering cracks and pirated version of their software products.

Google launched Google Suggest a couple of months ago to make it easier for web users to find search keywords while using their search engine. User just has to key in certain characters and they are presented with related search keywords.

The suit was originally filed in February and has been re-filed again earlier this week. ServersCheck BVBA is a small company, which develops network-monitoring software. The problem intensified when Google added the Google Suggest feature in their search toolbar for web browsers making it even easier for web surfers to get related piracy sites.

Maarten Van Laere, chief executive officer of ServersCheck said in a statement that if ServersCheck is entered in the Google search box on the toolbar, Google generates suggested search terms such as “serverscheck crack,” “serverscheck pro crack,” and “serverscheck keygen”.

He added that Google told them pirated sites could be removed from their index, but removing such keywords from the Google Suggest database was not fixable. This forced them to file a lawsuit against the search engine giants.

Van Laere added in a statement: “We don’t have any problems with the fact that in Google you can find illegal copies of our software. There are people who will never buy the product at the end of the day. But people that are looking for your company’s name in good faith are then being suggested by Google to go and look for a crack. That is a complete different ballgame.”