{"id":5168,"date":"2003-10-22T06:27:09","date_gmt":"2003-10-22T13:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=5168"},"modified":"2003-10-22T06:27:09","modified_gmt":"2003-10-22T13:27:09","slug":"words_mean_thin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/10\/22\/words_mean_thin.html","title":{"rendered":"Words mean things™"},"content":{"rendered":"

A French court has ruled against Google in a potentially far-reaching decision regarding use of trademarks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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.
\nThe 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.
\nIf 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.<\/p>\n

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.)<\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

The French court seems to think so.<\/p>\n

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.
\nGoogle 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.
\nBut 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.<\/p>\n

As was noted on the Volokh <\/a>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)?<\/p>\n

(tip o’ the title hat to Adam<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A French court has ruled against Google in a potentially far-reaching decision regarding use of trademarks. 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Turns out it didn't have any copyrighted material on it, and so was not vulnerable to attack under the DMCA. Not...","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1251,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/02\/06\/in_a_nutshell.html","url_meta":{"origin":5168,"position":1},"title":"In a Nutshell","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 6-Feb-02 1:58pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Nutshell rocks. Nutshell is a little IE (5.5 and above, and Windows only, I suspect) add-on that gives you a search line and a Go button on your toolbar. Type...","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43128,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/18\/all-your-search-result-are-belong-to-us.html","url_meta":{"origin":5168,"position":2},"title":"All your search result are belong to us","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 18-Jun-14 4:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Really? A Canadian court can not only control what Canadians can find on Google, but what I can, too? \u00a0Because it's \"just or convenient that the order should be made\"?Y'know, Canada, there's a lot I love about you, and glass houses and all that, but that's just wrong.Reshared post from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11915,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/01\/02\/open_source_search.html","url_meta":{"origin":5168,"position":3},"title":"Open source search?","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 2-Jan-08 10:07am","format":false,"excerpt":"Search engines, from Google to Yahoo to Microsoft, keep their algorithms secret as to how they interpret the web of text and cross-links on the Internet into relevant results for...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11976,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/12\/19\/more_searchy_goodness.html","url_meta":{"origin":5168,"position":4},"title":"More searchy goodness","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 19-Dec-07 11:48am","format":false,"excerpt":"I've added yet another search box to the sidebar.\u00a0 This one's powered by Google, and will search this blog, Margie's Kitchen, and Doing Write.\u00a0 The result is Google-ugly, not as...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11502,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/08\/13\/searching_glances_6.html","url_meta":{"origin":5168,"position":5},"title":"Searching glances","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 13-Aug-07 11:14am","format":false,"excerpt":"Taking a serious look at the Fast Search plug-in for Movable Type, which, by using a fulltext index for entries, promises (and, based on comments out there, fulfills) much faster...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}