Google, Louis Vuitton face off in trademark spat - NetworkWorld.com

Europe's peak tribunal will hear a hallmark violation lawsuit concerning Google's keyword advertisement system, a lawsuit that
ventures into an unseasoned country of law that could impact the company's moneymaking advertisement revenue.

Fashion retail merchant Joe Louis Vuitton won a lawsuit in French Republic over Google's AdWords system, where advertizers command for keywords. The
keywords are used to put advertisements related to a person's hunt footing using Google's hunt engine or in Web pages with similar
content. Don't Miss!

AdWords proposes fluctuations of certain keywords to advertizers when they are using the company's interface. Joe Joe Joe Joe Louis Vuitton
said the hunt engine offerings footing such as as "Louis Vuitton fakes" and "Louis Vuitton replicas," according to Pinsent Masons,
which runs the Out-law.com legal .

Louis Vuitton avers the suggestions amount to misdemeanor of its trademarks, since Google is essentially selling the marks
to which it doesn't not have got the right or the consent of trade name owner, said Iain Connor, an intellectual place litigator
with Pinsent Masons Related Content

France's peak tribunal ruled in favour of Joe Louis Vuitton. Google appealed, and the lawsuit will travel to the European Court of Justice
(ECJ) in Luxembourg. The ECJ will do a ruling, which the Gallic tribunal must accept, Connor said. No day of the month for the lawsuit has
been scheduled, and it could be as long as a twelvemonth before the ECJ do a ruling.

The lawsuit come ups as Google recently changed its policy over hallmarks and keywords in the U.K. and Ireland, Connor said. On
May 5, Google allowed anyone in those states to offer on any keywords, the same as the company's U.S. policy, he said.

However, Google have faced judicial proceeding in the U.S. over that policy, with tribunals in Golden State and New House Of York giving conflicting
decisions, Connor said.

Previously, hallmark proprietors could advise Google in order to barricade others from scooping up keywords that represented their
trademark.

In Europe, the hallmark issue hasn't been addressed by the courts. "There is no lawsuit law related to this precise issue in
Europe," said Connor, who is not involved in the case.

Whatever the ECJ's ruling, Google will likely have got to make a uniform policy on keywords and hallmarks that uses to all
27 states in the European Union. Hallmark law have been harmonized in the zone, Connor said.

Google's AdWords programme have represented one of the top advertisement inventions on the Internet, as well as a cardinal source
for Google's ever-growing revenue. The company did not react to a question by deadline.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.