A Port Macquarie breast surgeon who sued Google for defamation over an auto-complete search suggestion that he believed had cost him clients has withdrawn his case.
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The suit, filed in January by Dr Guy Hingston in the US district court in California, claimed that when you type "Guy Hin ..." into Google the words "Guy Hingston bankrupt" appear in the auto-complete. He claimed this was defamatory as he was not bankrupt.
Dr Hingston has since withdrawn his case.
"I decided it was better to focus on my primary role as an oncoplastic breast surgeon," he told Fairfax Media.
He withdrew the case on March 7, according to US court records.
Dr Hingston was seeking at least $US75,000 in damages plus court costs for the "significant harm and economic loss" caused by the matter.
Although Dr Hingston was bankrupted on August 4 2009, this has since been declared invalid.
A Google Australia spokesman said he had no comment to offer on Dr Hingston's withdrawal.
Google has been involved in several lawsuits around the world in the past year around its autocomplete suggestions, and has increasingly been held responsible for content on its search pages.
Google writes on its website that auto-complete results are "a reflection of the search activity of all web users and the content of web pages indexed by Google".
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