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ARTICLE · 24 FEBRUARY 2017

Using Your Competitor's Trademarks As Keywords? Proceed At Your Own Risk

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The Court of Appeal for British Columbia has issued an injunction restraining a party from using its competitor's trademarks in its keyword advertising.

CanadaIntellectual Property
Martha Savoy
Martha Savoy
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The Court of Appeal for British Columbia has issued an injunction restraining a party from using its competitor's trademarks in its keyword advertising. While the Court of Appeal stopped short of finding that bidding on keywords in and of itself is contrary to the Trade-marks Act, it did find that in this case, the Defendant's use of the Plaintiff's trademarks as keywords in the visible text of its sponsored link was a misrepresentation likely to cause confusion to the public. The Court of Appeal found the Defendant liable for passing off.

The Plaintiff in the case, Vancouver Community College, is a public college which has been operating in the Vancouver area since 1965. It has been using the Vancouver Community College name and the acronym VCC for decades.  The Defendant, Vancouver Career College (Burnaby) Inc. is a private career college which has been operating in the Vancouver area since 1995.

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