The case dates back to December 2002 when travel agencies
Luteciel and Viaticum sued the company over the use of their trade
marks bourse des vols (flight market) and
bourse des voyages (travel market) as search
terms in Google's AdWords service.
AdWords allows advertisers to sponsor particular search terms so
that, whenever that term is searched for, the advertiser's link
will appear next to the search results.
In October 2003, in one of the first rulings of its kind, the
Lower Court of Nanterre found in favour of the travel
agencies and ordered Google France to remove the disputed terms
from AdWords within 30 days.
It also ordered the company to pay €70,000 in damages and €5,000
in court expenses, and prohibited the company from profiting in
future from such use of the two marks on pain of a €1,500 fine per
infringement.
Google France appealed the ruling but, according to reports, it
lost.
Google's AdWords Service has been the subject of several other
successful suits in the French courts. Most recently French luxury
goods retailer Louis Vuitton won a suit brought against the search
engine, resulting in Google France being fined €200,000 ($260,000),
according to reports.
