European
Court of Justice will hear Google
Adwords lawsuit!
So far, there have been more than 70 decisions on
Adwords in EU member states, more than 30 in France alone. The rulings differ in
finding and reasoning. The use of trademark protected terms as keywords may be
legal in some member states (e.g. in Great Britain), may be illegal in other
member states (e.g. in France
and Italy). German courts are split on this question.
It seems that advertisers will
finally get some very important advice. The European Court of Justice in
Luxembourg will hear a trademark infringement suit concerning Google AdWords!
Its decision will probably influence future adwords lawsuits in all 27 member
states, because trademark law is harmonised across the EU (see:
First Council Directive 89/104/EEC of 21 December 1988 to approximate
the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks), and could
force Google to change its policy over trademarks and keywords in some member
states.
In 2005 Louis Vuitton successfully sued Google;
not only for allowing
keyword combinations that associate plaintiff's protected marks with terms
including "imitation", "fake" and "copies", but also for proposing such terms to
would-be advertisers (Louis
Vuitton Malletier / Google, Civil Court of Paris (TGI), February 4,
2005). In
June 2006 The Paris Court of Appeals agreed with that decision and found
Google guilty of trademark counterfeiting and unfair competition.
Google appealed to the Cour de cassation,
the main court of last resort in France. The Court decided to ask the European
Court of Justice whether the offering of alternative choices of (trademark
protected) keywords breaches trade mark laws.