This time, both are waiting for Utah's Trademark Protection Act, which is designed to allow Utah businesses to register their online trademarks and keep search engines like Google from selling them as search terms to rival companies.
"Trademark violations on the Internet are rampant," said Senator Dan Eastman, who sponsored the bill, in an explanation posted to the Utah Senate's Web site. "In my mind this amounts to little more than a creative new kind of identity theft. This year the Utah Legislature passed an effective, private-sector solution."
Though that solution officially became law on June 30, both Utah businesses and potential Google lawsuits won't have anything to work with until the registration database is complete.
"Issues such as the substantive requirements for registration, registration methods and fees are being developed," said a statement on the Utah Division of Corporations and Commercial Code Web site, www.corporations.utah.gov.
Representatives from both the division and the Utah Department of Commerce declined to give out any further information on the process, including who was creating the database or an estimated date on its completion. The initial bill, S.B. 236, allows for an outside contractor to create the database.
Search engines, who claimed earlier this year that the act violated interstate commerce laws and promised to sue, have also been waiting. A representative from the Utah Attorney General's Office had not heard of any lawsuits moving ahead against the state.
Still, such lawsuits have plenty of time to materialize, possibly stopping the database before it starts. A warning to that effect was included in the legislative review note on the Trademark Registration Act itself.
"This legislation likely provides a benefit that is substantially outweighed by the burdens on interstate commerce," said the review note, written by the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel. "It has a high probability of being held to be unconstitutional."
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