The clowns at WKPA should be ashamed to show their faces - over on Ad Age, McCartin (their President) explains why they brought the suit:

Tom McCartin, president of WKPA, is most concerned about Mr. Dutson's public posts because if potential clients search for the agency online, they will likely see Mr. Dutson's critique-filled blog before the agency's own Web site. As a result, Mr. McCartin says his business, which sees capitalized billings in the $40 million range, has been hurt. And he wants to protect his reputation.

Here, let me translate: "We here at WKPA are way too stupid to understand how search engines work. Why, just look at our website if you don't believe me! Nothing but WKPA approved verbiage should be allowed on the internet when talking about us, because we can't be bothered to learn new things. Why, if it worked in 1990, it should still work!"

McCartin should listen to Steve Rubel, who knows something about PR in the internet era:

"The last thing you want to do is sue [bloggers]," Mr. Rubel said. The publicity will be so negative that you probably would save face by negotiating as far as you can, he said. Publicity is bound to be bad for the agency because it is suing an individual who likely doesn't have the same defensive resources.

Which is what I said when I first commented on this. WKPA has created a negative PR event, which is bad for them and bad for their client. I wonder how happy their client is at this point? Going forward, I can't imagine that this will do good things for their prospecting efforts:

WKPA: Hire us, we'll promote you!

Prospect: You mean, like you promoted the State of Maine? Hmm, no thanks!

Welcome to 2006 guys.