Managing Intellectual Property

Opinion: How will Google tell I’m confused?

06 August 2010

Google’s amendment of its trade mark policy in Europe will create disagreement over when competitors’ adverts are misleading, argues Simon Chapman of Lewis Silkin

Google has announced that it is changing its AdWord trade mark policy, effective as of September 14 2010. The changes will, in certain circumstances, allow advertisers for the first time in the UK to use third-party trade marks in advertisements that appear on Google’s search results.

They will also allow trade-mark owners to demand that Google investigates and, where appropriate, takes down advertisements that are misleading. The changes are a direct result of the recent Court of Justice of the EU (CJ) judgments in the Louis Vuitton and Portakabin cases.

Google has been keen to spin these changes as a good thing for users of AdWords, saying in the new...



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