There's an increasing body of law dealing with the issue of
Adwords. If you're wondering what I'm on about, this
refers to the fact that you can - if you're prepared to pay
enough money - buy from Google the brand name of your
competitor as a so-called 'Adword'. If you do this your
advert will pop up on the screen of every person who keys in your
competitor's brand name as a search term. The legal issue
that arises here is this: are you or Google infringing the
competitor's trade mark registration?
Google certainly isn't, because it isn't actually using
the trade mark but simply acting as some sort of intermediary. So
said Europe's highest court a few years back, in a very
important case involving Louis Vuitton, and subsequently in one
involving Interflora. And you as the buyer of the Adword aren't
either, provided that your ad doesn't cause any consumer
confusion, and provided it doesn't lead to the competitor's
trade mark becoming generic. In other words, your
