An adviser to Europe’s highest court said that Google’s controversial practice of selling keyword phrases, such as “Louis Vuitton shoesâ€, to other businesses, including rivals, was not illegal under European law.
Keyword advertising — known within Google as AdWords — allows businesses to buy slots alongside Google’s main search results in the “sponsored links†section. Sponsored links, which appear to the right of a Google results page, account for most of the search engine’s revenues, which reached $21 billion in 2008. The practice annoys brand name owners, who claim that it allows competitors to piggyback on their trademarks.
The issue came to prominence in Britain when Marks & Spencer bought the Google keyword Interflora. The florist complained that this meant anyone typing “Interflora†into Google would also see a prominent mention of M&S’s flower delivery service. This issue is the subject of separate litigation. Louis Vuitton, which also claimed that keywords were being used by people selling fake versions of their goods, advanced similar arguments.
Yesterday the adviser to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said: “Google has not committed a trademark infringement by allowing advertisers to select keywords corresponding to trademarks.†The adviser’s opinion is not binding but is followed by the ECJ in 80 per cent of cases.
The case will return to the ECJ this year, when a full panel of judges will decide the outcome. The court was asked to study the issue after Google had appealed against a French court’s decision in favour of Louis Vuitton.
Google welcomed the opinion, but lawyers said that brand owners who could show that their trademark was being damaged by Google’s keywords may still be able to sue it for damages.
Times Online