This European lawsuit might impact US PPC - GoFuckYourself.com

$5 submissions · 03-27-2011, 07:01 PM

A pending lawsuit in Europe might bode bad news for US webmasters who get traffic primarily from PPC.

Sure, it's in Europe right now but trademark issue might carry over to US shores.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/te...ord25.htm?_r=1

Quote:

The lawsuit is the latest in a series of cases in Europe in which the parameters of search engine advertising, which generates more than $20 billion a year for Google, are being defined.

In a landmark decision last year, the Court of Justice ruled that Google was not liable for trademark infringement in a case brought by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and other brand owners. LVMH argued that Google should block other advertisers from buying search keywords under LVMH trademarks like Louis Vuitton, saying these were often used to direct consumers to sites selling fake handbags and committing other trademark violations.

Rather than suing Google, Interflora went after a user of the service, Marks & Spencer. Nevertheless, if the court goes along with the advocate general?s opinion, something it generally does, the decision could have financial ramifications for Google if advertisers have less latitude to buy rivals? brand names as keywords for so-called sponsored links, analysts said.

Agent 488 · 03-27-2011, 07:05 PM

how does this impact the US?

96ukssob · 03-27-2011, 08:33 PM

Google's "broad" match has gotten some people in serious trouble.

An old client of mine is getting sued from a competitor of theirs for bidding on brand names terms after they received and agreed to a C&D. They hired someone internally to handle the campaigns and the idiot "expert" put a bunch of their keywords on broad match, which shows your ads for keywords that you are not even bidding on... stupid move from google IMO

03-27-2011, 08:33 PM	#3
96ukssob So Fucking Banananananas Industry Role: Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: If I was in your ass you'd know it Posts: 12,991	Google's "broad" match has gotten some people in serious trouble. An old client of mine is getting sued from a competitor of theirs for bidding on brand names terms after they received and agreed to a C&D. They hired someone internally to handle the campaigns and the idiot "expert" put a bunch of their keywords on broad match, which shows your ads for keywords that you are not even bidding on... stupid move from google IMO __________________ Email: Clicky on Me

03-27-2011, 07:05 PM	#2
Agent 488 Registered User Industry Role: Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 22,511	how does this impact the US?