French Court Rules Google Cannot Use Trade-marks to Trigger Advertising — A Contrary Result in the US

In December, a court in Nanterre ruled that Google infringed the trade-mark rights of the hotel chain Le Meridien by allowing Le Meridien's competitors to bid on keyword advertising. The ads placed by the winning bidder were triggered by a user of the search engine employing the Le Meridien trade-marks in a search. The French court ordered Google to cease its practice, failing which it will face a fine for each day that it fails to comply with the order. A Google representative indicated that it will appeal. In a previous court case in France brought by Louis Vuitton, the plaintiff was also successful against Google. By contrast, Google recently was successful in the United States in defending its right to similarly trigger ads, this time in a trade-mark infringement suit brought by GEICO, the car insurance company. GEICO had alleged that Google's practice of selling GEICO's trade-marks as keywords resulted in confusion for customers who, in trying to find information about GEICO, found themselves on competitors' web sites or receiving information on competitors' products. However, a judge of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, in an oral ruling, held that GIECO had not produced convincing evidence that the appearance with the search results of competitors' links was actually confusing to consumers. According to news reports, Google receives about 98% of its revenue from keyword advertising linked by Google's search technology. In both Canada and the US, Google's policy has been to prevent its client advertisers from using trade-marks in an ad only following a request to do so by the trade-mark owner. Otherwise, says Google, it is up to trade-mark owners themselves to seek relief against competitors for any trade-mark violations. For the New.Com news story on the French decision, see: http://makeashorterlink.com/?G3802125A. For a news story regarding the Google/GEICO litigation, see: http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3448471. View the Google policy regarding trade-marks use at: http://www.google.com/tm_complaint.html. For the results of a poll of Internet search engine users and to what extent they appear able to distinguish between ads and "unbiased" search results, see: http://makeashorterlink.com/?L3902125A. Summary by: The Editor