Back off...or we'll set the Gecko on you

Here's the scoop: Geico (a 15 minute call could land you in court) just settled with Google regarding the selling of the GEICO keyword to its competitors. Now, the same Geico (a 15 minute whinge...) has released a slew of "stop playing in our sandbox or we'll tell our Daddy - who's stronger than your Daddy - to beat you up" letters to a bunch of other companies to cease and desist from essentially giving consumers a choice.

Here are my questions:

• Has GEICO every used comparative advertising in any way e.g. our rates are cheaper than competitor X or Y? If so, they're monster hypocrites
• If GEICO has a legitimate case, is this in fact just a reincarnation of the whole Adware/Spyware debate? i.e. UPS ad pops-up on FEDEX site
  • What will this do to the whole paid search space if it in does in fact, set a precedent
• Back to the Google case for a moment...is there a difference between Google overtly selling GEICO's keywords to their competitors versus their competitors EXPRESSLY ASKING for them (i.e. unprompted)? Surely this is just a case of a free market economy...where GEICO is entitled to purchase its own keywords at a higher premium (defense is the best offense)