Home › DMW Daily › September 22, 2009

EU Court Adviser Sides with Google on Keyword Ad Trademarks

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 22, 2009 - 9:42am.
Luxembourg - An adviser to the European Court of Justice has issued an opinion stating that Google's (NASD: GOOG) keyword advertising service does not infringe on the trademark rights of luxury good retailer LVMH, Reuters reported.

LVMH, whose brands include Louis Vuitton, sued Google to prevent the company from selling ads based on keywords that include its brand names.

The European Court of Justice said on Tuesday that Advocate General Poiares Maduro "considers that Google has not infringed trade mark rights by allowing advertisers to buy keywords corresponding to registered trade marks."

"When selecting keywords, there is thus no product or service sold to the general public. Such a use cannot therefore be considered as being a use made in relation to goods or services covered by the trade marks."

Reuters noted that the European Court of Justice "follows the opinion of its advocates general in a majority of cases," and that the court is expected to give its official ruling at a later date.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/s1v2i (Reuters)

Published in DMW Daily, September 22, 2009
tags: Advertising | Law | Lawsuits | Policy | Search | Google | Trademarks | LVMH |



Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.