European Court of Justice Rules that Google has not Infringed a Trademark by Allowing Advertisers to Purchase Keywords of Their Competitors
Vuitton, the proprietor of the Community trade mark ‘Vuitton’ and of a number of French national trade marks became aware that the entry, by internet users, of terms constituting its trade marks into Google’s search engine triggered the display, under the heading ‘sponsored links’, of links to sites offering imitation versions of Vuitton’s products and to sites of its competitors. Google offers a paid referencing service called ‘AdWords’. That service enables any business, by reserving one or more keywords, to obtain the placing of an advertising link to its site, accompanied by a commercial message. That advertising link appears under the heading ‘sponsored links’, which is displayed either on the right-hand side of the screen, to the right of the natural results, or on the upper part of the screen, above those results.
Vuitton brought an action against Google before a French court asking whether it is lawful to use, as keywords in the context of an internet referencing service, signs which correspond to trade marks, where consent has not been given by the proprietors of those trademarks.
The Cour de cassation (French Court of Cassation),referred these questions to the European Court of Justice, which ruled on March 23, 2010 that Google had not infringed. The decision is available at the European Court of Justice website.
