March 04, 2011
The software company has announced that it will no longer investigate complaints made by businesses in the US of trade mark infringement by advertisers using their trade marks in keyword advertising.
The change in policy follows several cases, including a decision of the European Court of Justice, ruling that the use of other business’s trade marks as keywords is not illegal provided that the adverts themselves do not cause confusion as to the business being advertised.
Google has also stated that it intends to extend its practice of not acting on a keyword complaint to most European countries. It also permits, in the US, UK, Ireland and Canada, re-sellers to use the trade marks of the business’s whose goods they are selling, in their adverts.
However, the European Parliament has recently voted in favour of a change in the law prohibiting search engines from selling key words without the prior consent of the trade mark owner of that word. It remains to be seen whether the Commission will implement such a proposal but for now, the current practice seems to be heading in the opposite direction.
