Words mean things™

A French court has ruled against Google in a potentially far-reaching decision regarding use of trademarks.

The civil court in Nanterre, near Paris, fined Google €75,000 ($126,000) for allowing advertisers to link text internet advertisements to trademarked search terms and gave the company 30 days to stop the practice, common at internet search services.
The ruling, handed down last week, is believed to be the first in which the owner of a trademarked term successfully sued an internet search service for allowing advertisers to use protected terms in text ads.
If it is upheld on appeal and validated in other countries, the decision could force the search services to pre-screen search terms for trademarks before letting advertisers use them.

Google, like most other search engines, makes money through advertising. When you search for, say, “jelly beans,” then the page will also come up with ads, on the side, for candy stores who have paid for placement. (Google does, btw, a much better job than some search engines in noting ads vs search results.)

But let’s say you search on the word “xerox,” which is a trademark. Should advertisers be able to request that Google, when that word comes up, place their ad on the page? Is that an illegal use of a trademarked phrase, particularly if it brings up ads not just from Kinkos, but also from Sharp and Canon and other Xerox competitors?

The French court seems to think so.

In the trademark case, the owner of the name, internet travel agent, Bourse des Vols, wanted Google to stop allowing competitors to include its name as a term that would generate an advertisement and link to their own site that internet searchers could click on.
Google had refused, arguing its French arm was not responsible, that the term Bourse des Vols was not protected by a valid trademark and that the issue was technological and could not be resolved.
But the court found for the plaintiff on all three counts, said Fabrice Dariot, who owns the trademark to Bourse des Vols. […] The result of the decision is that any time the name Bourse des Vols is typed in, only ads for that specific site can be posted with the search results, Mr Dariot said.

As was noted on the Volokh entry that I found this on, why, if this is a trademark violation, put the onus on Google? Is not the true violator the company that requested that as a search term (and is that any different from the practice of putting trademark’s in a page’s metadata — and would Google be liable for using that in their search index)?

(tip o’ the title hat to Adam)