San Francisco - A company that sued Google in 2003 for trademark infringement, over ads placed through its keyword-based online advertising service, has settled its lawsuit, Reuters reported.

American Blinds & Wallpaper Factory, Inc. sued Google for allowing rivals to bid on keyword ads that it said violated its trademarks.

The case was headed for trial in November, but both parties agreed to dismiss the suit with prejudice; neither side has admitted wrongdoing, and both will pay their own legal bills.

Google agreed not to change its AdWords trademark policy in a way that would adversely affect the company, while American Blinds agreed not to assist other parties in suing Google.

"From the start, we've said that American Blind & Wallpaper Factory's claims were baseless, and that Google's trademark policies are perfectly reasonable and lawful," Michael Kwun, Google's managing counsel for litigation, told Reuters.

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http://tinyurl.com/2nxop4 (Reuters)