Internet behemoth Google Inc. is being sued by American Airlines for the unauthorized use of trademarks and services identifying the airline to Internet users, according to a complaint filed on August 16.

Google’s search engine is allegedly helping third parties to mislead consumers and misappropriate the American Airlines marks by using them as keyword triggers for paid advertisements.

“In working through this business dispute, American is hopeful that it will continue professional, friendly and fruitful relationships with Google, while finding an appropriate resolution to the trademark issues,” said an American Airlines representative in a prepared statement. Google did not return their calls. Google’s trademark policy states, “Google will not disable keywords in response to a trademark complaint.”

Lead counsel for this lawsuit, Terence P. Ross, is no stranger to keyword lawsuits. He worked on similar suits for clients including Wells Fargo and 1-800 Contacts. Ross was not available for comment.

American Airlines said the suit is merely an effort to protect its trademark. They said the dispute isn’t seeking to prevent the display of search results that reflect consumers’ interests or choices. American is only asking Google to stop selling its trademarks to others who are purchasing them to confuse or divert consumers searching for AA.com or American’s products.

American Airlines seeks relief for the damages that these practices are allegedly creating, according to Billy Sanez, media representative for American Airlines. “All damages will be assessed during trial,” Sanez said.

This isn’t the first time Google has been sued over trademark infringement; Rescuecom, JTH Tax, Check-n-Go and American Blinds all raised similar suits against Google, but to no avail. “American Airlines apparently decided it was worth going to war over this issue—and is prepared to pay the big bucks to litigate this case accordingly,” said Eric Goldman, professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, in a post on his Technology and Marketing Law blog at blog.ericgoldman.com.

“If this lawsuit runs its course, I expect this to be a hard-fought and expensive lawsuit. This complaint pleads the usual claims for this type of action, including direct, contributory and vicarious trademark infringement, a false advertising claim that the sponsored link language communicates a false impression of actual sponsorship, dilution, various soft state claims and tortious interference with contract because Google allegedly knew that American’s distributors weren’t supposed to buy American’s trademarks as keywords.”