Open season on Trademarks in Google Adwords
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Lee
3 years ago -
694
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Us Europeans are a liberal lot (think Eurotrash!). Now the ever so liberal European Court of Justice has ruled in favour of bidding on Trademarks you have to ask is that too liberal? I would expect brand owners to not be very happy with the result.
But what does this mean to brand? Does it really mean that I can buy a shipload of moody gear in from the Far East and flog it all by bidding on trade-marked terms via Adwords? In theory yes, expect more to evolve from this ruling. One thing I will say is expect brand protection lawyers to be getting a little bit busier with this ruling.
Read Google’s take on what the decision means to them:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/european-court-of-justice-rules-in.html
I think sometimes strongly established brand names can be an unfair barrier to free competition and market entry. It is only logical that users searching for a product should also be presented with legitimate alternatives in the search results, wherever they look. It would be highly unfair – and a bad user experience – if supermarkets refused to sell anything but their own brands. Customers would go elsewhere, just as users would abandon a search engine that restricted infomation in favour of big business. Go Google!
So is it really about counterfeit goods? No Is it really about freedom for all? I don’t think so (shareholder value is needed) so what is it all about. I suspect a combination of a massive task to manage, taking up unnecessary costs and for no real revenue, in fact probably less. However, it still doesn’t address the issue of passing off.