Court Condones Keyword Advertising Using Name Of A Competitor

Copyright 2011, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP

Originally published in Blakes Bulletin on Intellectual Property/Information Technology, November 2011

The British Columbia Court of Appeal in Private Career Training Institutions Agency v. Vancouver Career College has affirmed a trial decision that a community college was free to engage in keyword advertising using the names of its competitors (see our July 2010 Blakes Bulletin on Intellectual Property). This case is the first appellate decision of its kind in Canada and suggests that, outside of the trade-mark context, keyword advertising in and of itself will seldom lead to liability.

Background

Keyword advertising allows advertisers to target their messages to persons who search certain phrases or words using an Internet search engine such as Google, Yahoo! or Bing. A search of those terms will trigger the particular ad, which will normally be displayed with a hyperlink to the advertiser's website along with