Keywords And Internet Advertising: Internet Users Are Not Easily Confused

South Africa is in a fortunate position in developing our trade mark case law as we can adopt developments in Europe which suit us and discard those which don't.  The reason for this is that the South African Trade Marks Act is closely modelled on the United Kingdom Trade Mark law and the European Directive on Trade Marks with the result that our courts have been happy to seek guidance from the European courts in interpreting the South African Act but have made it clear that we are not bound by such rulings.

An area of commerce which tests all areas of law, intellectual property being no exception, is the ever increasing and developing field of e-commerce.  The particular issue which I wish to explore this month is the question of keywords and whether the purchase and use of a third party's trade mark as a key word may constitute trade mark infringement.