Earlier this month, Google revealed it was filing suit against Pacific WebWorks (and other yet-to-be-named parties) for infringing on its trademark. Pacific WebWorks was among the companies running a “Google Work from Home” scam, advertising a way to make money off Google, to be learned through an inexpensive kit (and hidden, exorbitant recurring fee—which always enhances my learning experience).

Pacific WebWorks was also using Google’s logo and representing its kit and other services as endorsed by the search giant.

Pacific WebWorks issued a statement yesterday saying that they had reached an “agreement in principle” to settle and would be complying with Google’s request for expedited discovery. So either they think they’re innocent or they’re ready to sweep this all under the rug as fast as possible.

So, if they’re agreed and moving toward a settlement, why do we need discovery? Discovery is the phase of the trial where each of the parties share pertinent documents—so perhaps Google is demanding this to find the other companies it believes are running the scams. Google said earlier this month that, “upon information and belief,” the other scammers were materially connected with Pacific WebWorks.

Does this mean that the Google work from home scams will stop? Maybe in this iteration—but the whole thing is just a play on an old theme. Read any classifieds section and you’ll see more of the same. Hopefully scammers will think twice about using Google’s name and pretending to have its endorsement, but this scam will probably never go away completely.

What do you think? Will the case really be over that quickly?

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