A top judge in the EU's highest court has ruled that Google had not infringed trademark rights by allowing advertisers to bid and buy keywords corresponding to registered trademarks.
Louis Vuitton is fighting to prevent search engines using protected brand names in what is shaping up to be a landmark case that is being keenly followed by agencies and advertisers.
The fashion brand had already won a French court action, successfully claiming that Google acted illegally by allowing other companies to piggyback on the Vuitton brand name as a key search word on Google.
However, the legal judgement means that Google has won the latest round, raising the prospect that searches using a company's trademark will continue to generate results that include the names of their rivals.
Louis Vuitton went to court complaining that some of the links appearing during a search using its name are for firms marketing counterfeit or replica goods.
The company says the "AdWords" service, established in the US and now being rolled out to Europe, enables advertisers to bid on terms like "Louis Vuitton fakes".
But Advocate-General Poiares Maduro has ruled that "Google has not committed a trademark infringement".
He said: "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 identical or similar to those covered by the trademarks.
"Similarly, advertisers themselves do not commit a trademark infringement by selecting in Adwords keywords corresponding to trademarks."
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
