Google allows anyone to pay to have their adverts appear beside
certain words. Trade mark holders have argued that allowing other
people to buy an association with their brands constitutes trade
mark infringement.
French courts have previously agreed, upholding complaints by
Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy and Meridien Hotels that their trade
marks were infringed by the system.
Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris has ordered Google to pay
€200,000 to Voyageurs du Monde (Travellers of the World) and
€150,000 to Terres d'Aventure (Lands of Adventure), despite the
judge saying that the commercial harm to the companies was
marginal.
The company has also been ordered to pay €60,000 in costs.
When web users typed the trade marked terms 'voyageur du monde'
and 'terres aventure' into Google they say the search results
produced by Google were accompanied by adverts for those companies'
competitors.
The Court said that though the commercial harm was marginal it
had denied the companies some customers by directing them to other
sites, French newspaper Le Figaro reported.
Google said that it has already appealed the case to the Paris
Court of Appeal.
"Google disputes this judgment," said a Google statement.
"Google's terms and conditions make clear that advertisers are
responsible for their choice of keywords and warn against their
unauthorised use. Google believes that our advertising services
comply with French and European law on online advertising."
The search company last year changed its policy on keywords and
trade marks in the UK and Ireland. It had previously allowed only
trade mark holders to bid for the right to have their words or
phrases trigger their ads in all territories outside North
America.
Last April, though, it began operating the same policy in the UK
and Ireland as it had in the US, allowing anybody to bid on a term
as an ad trigger, even companies that did not own that term's trade
mark.
Last week a German court asked the European Union's top court
the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to rule on two similar
disputes. It has asked the ECJ to rule on whether or not the
purchase of a trade marked term as a keyword constitutes use of
that trade mark.
Disclaimer: We hope you find OUT-LAW’s content useful. It’s prepared by the lawyers at Pinsent Masons. Please remember, though, that it’s intended as general information only. It’s not legal advice. If that’s what you’re seeking, please
contact us. See also: our
full disclaimer
