Google announces relaxation in policy towards use of registered trade marks as keywords

Google has announced a relaxation of its policies involving the sponsoring of other people’s trade marks as keywords. Sponsoring keywords triggers adverts when Internet users search on those terms. The decision follows some high profile European Court of Justice rulings as to the use of someone else’s trade marks to generate sponsored ads. In cases this year involving Louis Vuitton v Google and Portakabin v Primakabin, the advert will infringe someone else’s trade mark rights if it does not enable average Internet users, or only with difficulty, to ascertain whether the goods or services referred to by the advert originate from the owner of the trade mark or someone economically linked to it.

Currently in most European countries, following a complaint, Google will act to stop use of another entity’s trade mark as a keyword that generates an advert. That is now changing. Google has extolled the virtues of the new system, by highlighting the fact that Internet users may now be able to see relevant and helpful adverts from resellers, review sites and competitors when users search for a particular brand. Advertisers can still complain if the use of their trade mark generates an advert where the specific text confuses users about the origin of the goods or services and Google will remove the advert if it is not happy. This change will apply to nearly every country in the world.

Meanwhile, Google is making a second change to its keyword policies. In the US, resellers can already use another company’s trade mark in the actual advertising text. This practice will be extended to the UK, Ireland and Canada.

Both changes will come into effect on 14 September.