News
Google changes its policy on trade mark complaints in the UK and Ireland
Trade mark owners are often perturbed to find that when their brand name is entered into a search engine, the results returned can list their competitors as “sponsored links” (as they are known on Google) at the top or side of the page, sometimes ranked higher up the page than they are.
These “sponsored links” occur when a company has selected a particular word as a keyword which will trigger advertisements on the search results page when that keyword has been entered into the search box.
Sometimes a generic keyword is chosen which forms part of a registered trade mark, thereby resulting in sponsored links inadvertently appearing when the whole trade mark is entered as a search term. This was the case in Wilson v Yahoo where Wilson brought an unsuccessful action based on the fact that on entering his MR SPICY trade mark into the Yahoo search engine, results would be returned for Sainsbury’s products, because Sainsbury had selected “spicy” as a keyword. But sometimes the competitor has deliberately selected the trade mark of a rival to use as one of its keywords. Up till now, Google has been prepared to stop this kind of deliberate use of a trade mark as a keyword if a trade mark proprietor filed a complaint with Google. From 5 May 2008, Google will no longer intervene to prevent the unauthorised use of trade marks as keywords. Google will, however, continue to intervene where a complaint is filed because the actual text displayed in an advertisement contains unauthorised use of a trade mark.
Contact BRANDED! on 01904 476388 or info@trade-mark.co.uk if you would like further information.
New Examination Practice
Important changes for trade mark owners are about to take effect in the UK. From 1st October 2007, UK trade mark applications will no longer be refused due to the existence of earlier trade mark rights. This marks the end of the ‘Nanny State’.
Although owners of conflicting earlier UK trade marks will be notified of the opportunity to oppose, the owners of Community Trade Marks will need to ‘opt-in’ to this scheme if they wish to receive similar notifications. Owners of any UK trade marks which have expired – even if late renewal is available – will also not receive these notifications.
Trade mark owners must now be more vigilant and police the Register to ensure that their rights do not become diluted. Watching services, oppositions and timely trade mark renewals are all more important than ever.
Contact BRANDED! on 01904 476388 or info@trade-mark.co.uk if you would like to discuss filing a Community Trade Mark or Design.
