Google’s new policy has certainly open new legal challenge for UK advertisers in a sense that UK is still unclear on whether buying a keyword that matches firm’s trade mark is lawful. It would appear that if the use of a registered trade mark in an AdWords advert causes confusion in the marketplace in the words of the UK courts as to ‘trade origin’ then it is still possible that a court could come to an decision against the defendant.

The UK case law is not as liberal as the US one, as the case law clearly states that if such use causes confusion, then infringement will be found.

It is not as simple as saying the use of registered trade marks in all AdWords in all circumstances is now allowed by case law. The current state is that advertisers are not allowed to use a trade marked term in the actual advert under the new rules. Advertisers will be able to buy the right to display their ad when a trade marked term is used by the searcher, but will not be able to use that term in the advert.

Search engines are the new linchpins of the Internet, and a new body of law - search engine law - will increasingly determine the shape of the Internet. Making sensible search policy requires a clear understanding of how search works, what interests are at stake, and what legal questions intersect at search. This article offers the first comprehensive overview of search engine law, which it organizes into a systematic taxonomy.
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MICHEEL

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