Issue 33 was entitled The Last Word on Adwords? (note the
question mark, which was particularly prescient). For the benefit
of those few who don't remember every word of that marvellous
missive, it dealt with the case of Louis Vuitton v Google. This
European Court decision made it clear that if you buy a
competitor's trade mark as an Adword - which you do so that
anyone typing in the competitor's name on a Google search is
referred to your site – you won't be infringing your
competitor's trade mark, provided that you make it clear that
your product isn't connected with the competitor. In other
words, if you don't cause consumer confusion or, to use modern
trade mark terminology, you don't compromise the main function
of the trade mark, which is to indicate origin.
