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Demonstrating that they don’t understand how the Internet works, American Airlines is suing Yahoo for trademark infringement, a case similar to one that the nation's largest airline settled this summer against Google.

The airline complains that when computer users enter American's trademark terms such as AAdvantage in a search, they can be directed to competitors who pay Yahoo for the traffic.

American filed its lawsuit last week in US District court in Fort Worth for unspecified damages, legal costs and money to run a "corrective" advertising campaign.

Yahoo’s Kelley Benander told the Associated Press, "We have confidence in our trademark policies and are prepared to defend them in court."

American reached a confidential settlement in a similar lawsuit filed against Google this summer, also in the federal court in Fort Worth.

Each side agreed to pay its own legal fees, and American got nothing from Google. But Google searches for "American Airlines" or "AAdvantage" no longer produce paid ads along the right side of the portal screen.

Google had prevailed in previous lawsuits filed by other companies over their paid search advertising practices using trademark terms.

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