A recent case has gone some way to clarify the law on use of tradenames for internet searching. The case concerned Google Interflora and Marks and Spencer. Type in Interflora and a Google search and you will get Marks and Spencer Flowers as the second sponsored link on the screen
Whilst I'm not a techie I believed it has something to do with the keywords behind the M&S site which might include the word interflora or similar. Understandably Interflora were not very happy about this and there is ongoing litigation between the two companies of which a recent European judgement is a staging post if hardly the end of the line. Part of the fire was directed at Google itself and whether it was guilty of infringement of the Interflora trademark for allowing this to happen. Google escaped on this one as the court held that creating the conditions for third parties to use a trademark did not mean that Google itself was using the mark. However the court held that third party advertisers could be liable 'in the case where the ad does not enable the average internet user, or enables that user only with difficulty, to ascertain whether the goods and services referred to therein originate from the proprietor of the trademark or an undertaking economically connected with it or, on the contrary, originate from a third party'. Thus confusion in the mind of the internet user is key to whether the law has been broken. No decision was taken about whether M&S had created such confusion, hence the litigation will have to go to further rounds. M&S will no doubt say no because it is clearly demarcated as a separate company selling a common product namely flowers.
Google itself could also be held liable as accessory to trademark infringement if it was informed by an injured party of illegal activity by a third party and failed to act promptly by removing or disabling the offending data.
Incidentally, if you type M&S flowers into Google you will only get the M&S site. Testimony it seems to M&S commercial muscle or possibly the muscle of its legal team.
Whilst I'm not a techie I believed it has something to do with the keywords behind the M&S site which might include the word interflora or similar. Understandably Interflora were not very happy about this and there is ongoing litigation between the two companies of which a recent European judgement is a staging post if hardly the end of the line. Part of the fire was directed at Google itself and whether it was guilty of infringement of the Interflora trademark for allowing this to happen. Google escaped on this one as the court held that creating the conditions for third parties to use a trademark did not mean that Google itself was using the mark. However the court held that third party advertisers could be liable 'in the case where the ad does not enable the average internet user, or enables that user only with difficulty, to ascertain whether the goods and services referred to therein originate from the proprietor of the trademark or an undertaking economically connected with it or, on the contrary, originate from a third party'. Thus confusion in the mind of the internet user is key to whether the law has been broken. No decision was taken about whether M&S had created such confusion, hence the litigation will have to go to further rounds. M&S will no doubt say no because it is clearly demarcated as a separate company selling a common product namely flowers.
Google itself could also be held liable as accessory to trademark infringement if it was informed by an injured party of illegal activity by a third party and failed to act promptly by removing or disabling the offending data.
Incidentally, if you type M&S flowers into Google you will only get the M&S site. Testimony it seems to M&S commercial muscle or possibly the muscle of its legal team.
No comments:
Post a Comment