The European Court of Justice ruled in Google’s favor in the case that Louis Vuitton brought against the search engine giant. According to the ECJ, Google didn’t violate trademark law when the company allowing advertisers to bid on keywords trademarked by other companies.
The ECJ decided that this is OK as long as advertisers’ identities are clear. The organization also stated that trademark holders should direct complaints about those things at advertisers and not Google. This will help establish AdWords as an acceptable business model.
Dr. Harjinder S. Obhi, Google’s Senior Litigation Counsel in EMEA region, responded on Google’s official blog by writing, “We believe that user interest is best served by maximizing the choice of keywords, ensuring relevant and informative advertising for a wide variety of different contexts.”
Obhi continued, “For instance, if a user is searching for information about a particular car, he or she will want more than just that car’s website. They might be looking for different dealers that sell that car, second hand cars, reviews about the car or looking for information about other cars in the same category.”